Michal Wasilewski for PMR: Health-oriented supplementation becomes one of the elements of everyday life

Ten post jest także dostępny w języku: polski

Closed fitness clubs, overall reduction of physical activity and social isolation significantly affect the performance of companies operating in the area of products used to achieve their training goals. Michal Wasilewski, owner and founder of the 7Nutrition brand, talks to PMR about how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the market of nutrients and dietary supplements for athletes.

7Nutrition brand history and future plans

The company has been operating since 2006. In the first stage Michal Wasilewski set up a one-man business and ran an online store. Then the business also moved on to sales in several stationary stores until it produced its own brand of supplements and nutrients 7Nutrition. Since 2012, the company has been operating as a joint stock company 7FIT with exclusively Polish capital and is listed on the NewConnect market. Currently, the company conducts sales through a stationary wholesaler in Wroclaw, the Internet store Triceps.pl and its own stationary and franchise stores.

Domestic sales are at this point about 70% of sales, the share of foreign companies is systematically growing. We export to England, Spain, Ireland, Germany and a dozen or so other countries, mainly European – says 7FIT founder, Michal Wasilewski.

The company plans further expansion abroad and intends to create a network of independent distributors. A strong emphasis is placed on the Middle East, where talks are held with potential distributors. The company has its own production plant as well as manufacture using other companys’ capacity with contract manufacturing. Despite the pandemic, in the near future 7FIT plans to expand its own production with a whole line of machines for loose products. In 2021, the company plans to launch about 20 new parapharmaceutical products under the 7Nutrition brand.

Of the products we introduce to our offer, the most important information is the premiere of our vitamin-mineral complex 7Nutrition Multisport 60 vege caps, which we have worked on for two years. In addition to a high dose of D3 + K2MK7, an advanced complex of B vitamins and minerals in the form of citrates is enriched with choline, coenzyme Q10, lutein, zeaxanthin, wild rose extract, ALA acid and Korean ginseng, bamboo shoot extract and black pepper extract, among others. This is our weapon to fight viruses – stresses Michal Wasilewski.

Pandemic changes consumer behaviour

The company quickly reacted to the outbreak of coronavirus and introduced several new pro-health and immunity products. According to the company, the coronavirus epidemic did not affect the supplement production processes either. In the second quarter of 2020 7FIT was working towards expanding its product offer with new nutrients and supplements of 7Nutrition brand.

We have fragmented sales and did not feel a clear change in its structure. We have a lot of customers in the form of online stores, which are connected to stationary stores, so we, as the owner of the 7Nutrition brand, did not feel so much change in this respect – explains Michal Wasilewski.

The company notes the biggest drops in the group of performance products, i.e. pre-training, creatine, selected amino acids and boosters. This group of products is closely correlated with the number of people actively exercising. The whole pro-health market is clearly growing. Protein conditioners also systematically increase the presence on the kitchen shelf. In the opinion of Michal Wasilewski, in the long run, all other sports and figure shaping supplements will certainly continue to develop.

Currently, the awareness of immunity prevention is growing rapidly. Health-oriented supplements are becoming one of the elements of everyday life – stresses Michal Wasilewski, owner of the 7Nutrition brand.

For more information about current trends and developments on the sports nutrition market, read PMR report: Sports nutrition market in Poland 2020. Market analysis and development prospects. The report contains a detailed analysis of the market value, as well as the results of the PMR survey from September 2020.