The global weight management market is estimated to reach US$586 billion in 2014 from about US$363 billion in 2009.
Device and accessories is the largest market under weight management market, and is expected to be US$181 billion in size by 2014, owing to the role of brands targeting the youth, and growing adoption rate in the female population. However, the highest CAGR of 14.7% from 2009 to 2014 is expected to come from the services segment. Artificial sweeteners used in low calorie food and beverages such as hoodia gordonii, inulin etc are driving the CAGR of ingredients in low calorie F&B to about 11.2% from 2009 to 2014. Emergence of new artificial sweeteners that claim to preserve the traditional flavors are gaining in demand.
Weight management service market is lucrative as it exhibits the highest CAGR over the period of 2009 to 2014. There are not many food chains which specialize in serving health food. Diet chains service providers are now expanding this low tapped segment by providing better and healthy food.
The market is currently restrained due to a confused positioning. Numbers of weight loss methods available in the market are making it difficult for market players to drive brand recall among the consumers. Failed attempts to reduce weight by the consumers discourage them to go in for further weight loss trials. Hence it is very essential for market players to understand the target audience and their specific needs to provide them umbrella solutions.
The significantly high rate of new products in the weight management segment necessitates industry participants to adopt proactive strategies. Moreover, the larger chunk of the market is not only driven by significant products such as fitness devices and food market, there also exist added opportunities in the minor market such as for fitness accessories. This necessitates a further need to underst
The weight management market is highly fragmented and dominated by the unorganized sector. The key players in the weight management market are Abbott Nutrition, GSK, Roche, Atkins Nutritionals, Brunswick, Jenny Craig, Kellogg, Merck, McNeil Nutritionals, Nestle, Reebok and Unilever. Agreements and collaborations, and new product launches are very popular strategies to combat competition. Both these strategies are consequential as several of the market players are entering into agreements and collaborations in order to promote their new products and to extend their presence in new geographies with no or very less cost compared to acquisitions. Our patent analysis indicates that rise in the obesity concerns has resulted in an apparent increase in the number of patents especially for weight loss ingredients and diet food products in 2008.
