More supermarkets investing in health and wellness as growth vehicle, FMI reports

ARLINGTON, Va. —  Health and wellness represents a significant growth opportunity for supermarket retailers, according to 81% of the food retailers who participated in a recent Food Marketing Institute survey. That's up from 70% in 2014, FMI reported.



"The convergence of the changing health care environment; consumers’ interest in having a closer connection to their food; and supermarket-solution-provider capabilities all create the potential for dynamic relationships between the food retailer and the shopper," noted Sue Borra, chief health and wellness officer for FMI and executive director of the FMI Foundation. "As a nutrition educator by training, I view this convergence of factors as a trifecta for positive behavior change."



And more supermarket operators are investing in that growth opportunity with a window office in the c-suite. "If I look back to just three years ago in our industry, two primary leadership teams held responsibility for operationalized health and wellness initiatives in food retail – pharmacy (59%) and nutrition (50%) leadership teams," Borra noted. "Now we’re witnessing an entire category of managers for health and wellness leadership: 71% of these professionals are focused experts leading the decision-making process on how programs are established and operationalized."



Other key findings from the survey, published in the FMI Retailer Contributions to Health & Wellness 2017, were:

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  72% of respondents also view health and wellness as a significant growth opportunity for their own store brand;


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  89% of food retailer respondents have established health and wellness programs for customers, employees or both and 96% are committed to expanding programs in their stores; and


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  In more than 50% of stores, product sampling (86%), healthy recipes (86%) and good-for-you-products (86%) were ranked highest among strategies to promote health and wellness. Smartphone apps and text programs for creating grocery lists was second at 68%.