Attendance up 13% at Natural Products Scandinavia 2014
Queues of enthusiastic visitors marked the opening of this year’s Natural Products Scandinavia, which returned to Malmö, Sweden, last month on 26-27 October. By the time doors closed on its third edition, it had welcomed 3,558 natural and organic industry professionals and received a wealth of positive feedback.
Natural Products Scandinavia is the Nordic region’s only dedicated trade event for the natural health, nutrition, beauty, skin care, and self-care market. Co-located with Nordic Organic Food Fair, and featuring 310 exhibitors for 2014, it enjoyed a 13% increase in attendance (compared to 3,158 in 2013). That’s a 77% increase since the show launched in 2012.
Reflecting its strong international appeal, buyers from 51 different countries (including as far afield as Canada and China) were in attendance. Whilst the majority hailed from Sweden and Denmark (61% and 20% respectively), around 14% were international visitors (with United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, and Spain all well represented). Norway, Finland and Iceland added another 5% to the show’s bustling aisles.
Key buyers and managers from leading health stores, pharmacy chains, wholesalers and distributors, and supermarkets (including Dansk Supermarked, Life, Lidl Sverige, SuperBrugsen, Matas A/S, Coop Trading A/S, ICA Sverige AB, Kronansapotek, Hälsokraft, Svenska Bioforce AB, Urtehuset A/S, Apoteksgruppen, Svane Aps, Apoteket AB, Waitrose, and The Nutri Centre) were all represented.
‘The quality of exhibitors has been the best so far!” says Julie Zacho, head of sales & marketing at Zacho Foods.
“This is the third year that Life have been involved in Natural Products Scandinavia. We come to the show to find the latest new products and business innovations and also for inspiration!” says Maria Jingham, category manager at Life.
“We’ve found some fantastic new health products and will definitely be back next year!” says first time visitor Camilla Jonsson, vice director of Swedish health store Good Days AB.
Cecilia Karlsson, assortment manager for organic and health products at ICA Sverige AB, was also very “happy with the diversity of suppliers”, praising the show’s range of “high quality products”.
Exciting, excellent, inspiring, important and relevant are just some of the words to feature in feedback so far, with around 82% of all surveyed attendees rating their show experience as excellent/good.
“We had another fantastic show this year, with visitor numbers increasing again and a very positive response from our exhibitors and visitors,” says event director Zoe Lacey-Cooper. “For a show that is only three years old, it’s amazing how quickly Natural Products Scandinavia has established itself as a must attend show for this important sector. Big thanks must go to our association and media partners for their continued support, our exhibiting companies for helping to make the show look so vibrant (with amazing stands!), and the visitors who came out in their thousands from all across the world.”
Exhibitors celebrate successful show
Looking ahead to 2015, the exhibitor list already includes a host of returning big name brands keen to enjoy another helping of this show’s much talked of buzz – including Biofood, Dagsmeja, Frisørgrossisten AS, Goodtrade Scandinavia AB, Lime Pharma ApS, Nakd Wholefoods, Natural Wellbeing (UK), Nordic Health Sprays, and Strindberg.
“It was absolutely fantastic – the best exhibition I have ever participated in. Great organisation and super quality visitors,” says Kenneth Axelsen, company director of Engholm NDS Nutrition.
“It’s the perfect platform to launch new products into the industry. We’ve been really impressed by the calibre of visitors,” says Katri Niemi, CEO of Futmed.
“Once again we’ve had another fantastic response to our brand with Nordic retailers at the show,” says Kurt Weinreich, owner of DinSundhed.Net Aps. “It is a great opportunity for us to meet face-to-face with so many people within the industry. Natural Products Scandinavia will be an integral part of our continued growth and expansion.”
“This show just gets better and better. Lots of great leads from new businesses and not just from the Nordic region but across the world!” says William Ahern, managing director of Mycology Research Labs.
Natural Products Scandinavia – Innovation Awards
As with many shows, sourcing new products and finding new suppliers topped the list of most important reasons for attending, and this year’s New Products Showcase certainly generated a wealth of interest over the two days. Featuring over 90 entries for 2014, visitors voted for their favourite products throughout the show’s opening day. This year’s award-winning products included:
- Best Organic Non-Food
- Winner: Natracare – Cleansing Make-up Removal Wipes
- Runner up: Futmed – Massage Flame Bliss
- Best New Natural Beauty & Skincare Product
- Winner: Lavera – Lavera Regenerated Hand Cream
- Runner up: Love Boo – Marvellous Mummy Kit
- Best New Health & Nutrition Product
- Winner: Lime Pharma – Ginjer
- Runner up: Hafkalk ehf. – Ocean Calm
- Best New Natural Living Product
- Winner: Natracare – Ultra Menstrual Pads
- Runner up: Nuwell Health & Wellness – The Nutty Juice
- Best New Natural Food Product
- Winner: Goodtrade Scandinavia AB – Jeezly – Vegan Cheese
- Runner up: Honey Company de Traay B.V. – de Traay Organic Spelt Syrup
- Best New Natural Drink Product
- Winner: Mabroc Teas (Pvt.) (Ltd) – Mabroc Ayurveda Boutique Range
- Runner up: PRAANA Herb and Tea Company – PRAANA Herbal Teas
Other show highlights included Natural Theatre sessions and workshops from Irene von Arronet and Henrik Olterg, founders of Natural Organic Cosmetics Sweden; Charlotte Bladh André, chairman of Organic Sweden; Julie Tyrrell, NATRUE Director; and Patrick Ahern, director general of EHPM.
Carl-Filip Clausson, research analyst at Euromonitor International, whose session ran on both days of the show, shared the latest data and trends on the Nordic Health and Wellness Market. Focussing on packaged foods and non-alcoholic drinks, research revealed that although the Nordic countries only represented 5% of the total population of Western Europe their share of retail value sales in the Packaged Food category (including naturally healthy and organic) was almost triple that, at 13%. With Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden all continuing to spend more per capita per year than any other country in Western Europe.
Euromonitor International has previously reported that the global dietary supplements market is also on the rise. The category, which encompasses many of the products on show at Natural Products Scandinavia 2014, is set to grow by an estimated 4% annually until 2018[1]. It’s a similar story for the global natural and organic personal care market. According to a recent insights by Kline & Company, a worldwide consulting and research firm, the growth in natural personal care sales in Europe were almost double that of the total personal care market in 2013 (at 6% and 3% respectively)[2]. This can only be good news for exhibitors and visitors preparing to return to Malmö next year.
Save the date for 2015
“Svensk Egenvård has supported the event from its launch in 2012. Since then Natural Products Scandinavia has become a crucial part the natural and organic products industry – this is where the Scandinavian industry meets,” says Mats Nilsson, managing director of Swedish self care association Svensk Egenvård.
Natural Products Scandinavia will return to Malmö, Sweden, on 1-2 November 2015. For more information, please visit www.naturalproductsscandinavia.com.
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[1] http://www.euromonitor.com/medialibrary/PDF/pdf_dietarySupplements-v1.1.pdf
[2] Natural Segment Continues to Outpace the Overall Beauty Market: Carrie Mellage, Vice President - Consumer Products, October 2014: http://blogs.klinegroup.com/2014/10/02/natural-segment-continues-to-outpace-the-overall-beauty-market
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Natural Products Scandinavia has been shortlisted for the Best Tradeshow Exhibition (UK & International) under 2,000sq.m Award at the UK’s Association of Event Organisers’ annual Excellence Awards. In May 2013, it won Best International Launch at the UK’s Exhibition News Awards in May 2013. In July 2013, it was named a finalist in the Best Trade Launch Show category at the UK’s Association of Event Organiser’s annual Excellence Awards.
Nordic Organic Food Fair has been shortlisted for the Best Tradeshow Exhibition (UK & International) under 2,000sq.m Award at the UK’s Association of Event Organisers’ annual Excellence Awards. In April 2014, it was named a finalist in the Best International Launch category at the UK’s Exhibition News Awards.
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