Market Data And Insights Released In, NEXT: The Natural Products Industry Forecast 2014

BOULDER, Colo., July 31, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton, and Sterling-Rice Group announce the launch of NEXT: The Natural Products Industry Forecast 2014, which identifies and details the trends, brands, products, people and sales shaping the future of the natural products industry and compelling consumers to make healthy behavior changes.

The overall natural products market grew more than 9% to $137 billion in 2012, as compared to the conventional grocery market whose growth has been under 4% for the last few years.

The NEXT Forecast features current sales & growth figures for all major nutrition categories, with projections all the way out to 2018, and discusses trends in food, design, beauty, supplements and natural living.  This exhaustive report serves as the definitive guide to where the natural, organic and healthy products market is now and where it is headed.

"The NEXT Forecast represents the future of the natural products market.  The report future casts products with ingredients, benefits, branding, packaging and missions that align with the trajectory of the industry and is bolstered by robust data and insights," says Carlotta Mast, chief author of the 2014 NEXT Forecast. 

Five of the top industry trends in the NEXT Forecast are:

Performance goes natural: Sports nutrition remains one of the fastest-growing categories in supplements, and is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 10% through 2015.  As non-endemic consumers buy in, and as doping scandals continue to pop up, a shift toward cleaner, third-party certified, natural supplement products will continue to gather steam.

Personalization:  As the balance of power between consumer and corporate interests realigns itself, products will have to meet consumers closer to where they live to resonate in the years to come. Everything from food to nutrition to healthcare is becoming more tailored.

Courting Millennials: This generation of consumers between the ages of 18 and 32—typified as independent, educated, skeptical and frustratingly fickle—have become the next great spending force in the United States. By the year 2020, millennials are expected to amplify grocery spending by $50 billion.

Transparency 2.0: After food-safety scares and troubling discoveries related to industrialized food production, consumers want to know exactly what is in their food, how it was sourced, and who made it. Through messaging, honest labeling, storytelling and more, standout companies are getting creative with their approaches to transparency, taking consumers closer to the source.

Natural, effective personal care:  Natural personal care, a $10 billion market, has suffered from the perception that their products just don't work. Until now, thanks to advances in green chemistry, progressive personal care companies have been busying themselves creating natural products that work just as well as (if not better than) conventional products.

Tomorrow's yesterday is the type of world that companies will spend millions of dollars and millions of manhours trying to decipher. No easy answers exist to the many questions now facing food, beverage, supplement, nutritional ingredient, natural living, and pet product companies. To help companies navigate this complex and shifting terrain, the NEXT Forecast provides essential insights and analysis for anyone who operates in the natural products industry looking for a deep understanding of how the health and wellness movement is evolving.

The NEXTY Editor's Choice Awards for 2014 have been bestowed upon leaders and innovators in the natural, organic and healthy living market across food, beverage, supplement and healthy living categories. These industry provocateurs are helping to shape the landscape of the natural products world.

The 2014 NEXTY Editor's Choice Award winners are:

FOODS + BEVERAGES:

QUINN POPCORN - for defining a new wave of food manufacturing by pioneering chemical- free microwave bags and non-GMO popcorn.

FARMHOUSE CULTURE – for making kraut the way it's been done for hundreds of years, barrel fermented and unpasteurized, producing a raw food with healthful probiotics.

SUPPLEMENTS:

TWINLAB – for their Clean Series which is HFL Informed Sport certified for banned substances, and every ingredient is identity-tested through Twinlab's in-house TwinID program.

NATURAL LIVING:

W.S. BADGER CO. – as the company is focused on safety, efficacy, and organic ingredients. Various Badger products have obtained USDA Organic, NPA Natural, and NSF/ANSI 305 "contains organic ingredients" certifications, NPA and NSF seals.

The report is divided into three product-focused sections: natural, organic and functional foods and beverages; dietary supplements and nutritional ingredients; and natural beauty, pet and household products. It also features an Executive Summary that reveals the ten macro forces influencing the natural products market and a branding chapter that looks at how cultural and societal trends have changed the world of food and how these shifts are evident in packaging design and branding.

NEXT: The Natural Products Forecast 2014 is available now, and lead researchers are available for interviews.  For a full copy of the report, which is $1,995, go to: http://www.nextforecast.com.

About New Hope Natural Media

New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton, is the leading media resource and information provider for the natural, organic and healthy products industry, with print, in-person/event, and e-business products and services.

About Sterling-Rice Group

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Sterling-Rice Group is a nationally recognized leader in brand development. Sterling-Rice Group proudly works with many of the top food and beverage companies in the world – providing research, strategy, design, product development and marketing communications. Visit www.srg.com for more information.

About Penton

For millions of business owners and decision-makers, Penton makes the difference every day. We engage our professional users by providing actionable ideas and insights, data and workflow tools, community and networking, both in person and virtually, all with deep relevance to their specific industries. We then activate this engagement by connecting users with tens of thousands of targeted providers of products and services to help drive business growth. Learn more about our company at www.penton.com.

Penton is a privately held company owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

SOURCE New Hope Natural Media