Another positive AFR article - Just a matter of time before this...

Another positive AFR article - Just a matter of time before this one takes off

by Simon Evans
Unfit British folks and gym junkies in China are a new frontier for ASX-listed vitamins and sports nutrition company Vitaco, while bigger rival Swisse is also making solid headway in the United Kingdom market eight months into an expansion.
Vitaco is banking on a rise in the current low levels of consumption of sports nutrition products such as protein bars and protein powders in the UK, which has consumption rates per capital about one third of that of Australia.
Vitaco chief executive Ryan D'Almeida thinks it represents a major opportunity for the company's Aussie Bodies range which has cemented a position as the No.1 sports nutrition brand in Australia.
A range of Lo Carb Mini Protein Bars under the Aussie Bodies range are being sold through the British pharmacy giant Boots under a deal which began in April. It is in 186 Boots outlets in the UK as well as being sold online.

Boots also began stocking the vitamins products of one of Vitaco's Australian rivals, Swisse, in October, 2015 and a Swisse spokeswoman said on Tuesday that early sales have been "strong".
Swisse is being sold in the UK through a distribution agreement signed last year with PGT Healthcare, a joint venture between the US healthcare giant Procter & Gamble and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
The Swisse brand is aggressively promoted in the UK using "ambassadors" including actor Nicole Kidman and British singer and television personality Alesha Dixon, a judge on the Britain's Got Talent television program.
Vitaco listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in September, 2015 but has found the going tough in the past few months with its shares now 25 per cent down on the $2.10 issue price after a float which raised $232 million.

It has remained in the shadows of the two larger Australian-based vitamins companies, Blackmores and Swisse, who have both experienced a huge jump in sales to China because of the attraction of the "clean and green" brands to Chinese consumers.
Blackmores doesn't sell its products in the UK market and is heavily focused on Asia, with China representing 40 per cent of total revenues.
Vitaco, which sells vitamins brands Nutralife, Healtheries and Wagner, is stepping up its presence in China in the vitamins sector and on June 1 a new China-based general manager, Jing Zhang, started in an on-the-ground role to oversee the China strategy.
Vitaco's China sales in the first half of financial 2016 were $11.5 million. Its most popular product in China is Nutra-Life Cranberry.

The company is also increasingly honing in on the rising numbers of Chinese in the major cities who do weight training at gyms and at home, setting up a Musashi flagship store on the hugely popular Tmall website in China at the start of June to try and drive more sales of the Musashi brand of protein powders, liquid drinks and amino acids.
Vitaco bought the Musashi business in 2015 and has now fully integrated the operations into its own stable, transferring the manufacturing of 83 different products to its own production sites at East Tamaki, a suburb in Auckland in New Zealand.
The company's sports nutrition brands, which make up about 38 per cent of total revenues, are also set to expand further in the Middle East, with the Aussie Bodies brand to be sold through a large pharmacy chain.
Swisse was acquired by Hong Kong-listed Biostime International in September, 2015 for $1.67 billion in a hotly contested bidding war. Blackmores shares on Tuesday gained almost 4 per cent to close at $141, having been above $200 in late April.