Sports nutrition boosts a healthy growth

Healthy Food Spot On

As sports nutrition follows hot on the heels of organic and free-from foods to enter the mainstream consumer market, Oaklins’ specialist Marco Vismara looks ahead to see how the broader functional foods segment is shaping up to continue its robust growth. Last year saw another record number of M&A deals in the healthy food industry, and the Sport & Diet Category was the most active. What types of niche products have the healthy growth potential to attract the big players looking to increase their strength in the sector?

Sports nutrition products, and more generally sports and dietary functional foods, are being progressively adopted by a much wider customer base than the original segments of athletes and bodybuilders. As a consequence, distribution is also becoming more mass-oriented. All this has led to intense M&A activity, where buyers are increasingly represented by consumer goods or pharma multinationals. MARCO VISMARA OAKLINS HEALTHY FOOD SPECIALIST

Spotlight

We turn the spotlight on the internationalization strategy of Enervit, Italy’s market leader in the sports & fitness and health & diet segments.

Case study

And this edition’s case study features the sale of a stake in UK-based Mindful Chef, which delivers health-focused meal boxes, to private equity fund Piper—the ideal financial partner to help the company reach an industry-leading position.

Oaklins Healthy Food Specialist

Paolo russo
Paolo Russo Turin, Italy
Partner
View profile