Christine Casey,  Category Manager VMS & Nutritionals for KeHE Distributors, LLC will be meeting with suppliers at ECRM’s upcoming Vitamin, Weight Management & Sports Nutrition Session, which will be held September 8 through September 11 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. To help brands prepare for their meetings with Christine, we’ve put together this Q&A regarding what she is looking for to meet the needs and objectives of her category.

ECRM: What is your role at KeHE?

Casey: I’m a category manager responsible for vitamins, minerals, and supplements as well as nutritional wellness which includes sports nutrition, proteins as well as performance nutrition, and all shots by format.

 ECRM: What types of products are you looking for at the Session?

Casey: I’m looking for a natural assortment for wellness-oriented consumers that is perfect for grocery stores which is the core of our assortment and aligns with KeHE’s opportunities for suppliers.

I’m typically looking for a great brand story, innovation in item assortment with the natural ingredients targeting a consumer looking for more natural items/brands.  Because the category sales are heavily driven by consumer demand, we do build assortment around key trends in the market that natural consumers are looking for.

ECRM: Can you provide us with some examples?

Casey: for nutritional wellness trends, we are looking for hydration (which I likely have a lot of), liquid protein RTDs, creatine, and shots. In this category, protein vs. calories is most important and consumers look for some premiumization in products like added fiber or grass-fed whey protein etc.

 For vitamins, minerals, supplements, we’re looking for emotional health supplementation, cognitive support, GLP-1, blood sugar control and other weight management strategies, digestive Fiber. Also new formats like melts, mints, gums, patches and other formats even though gummies are the current leader in format.

Here ingredients are important, and consumers are leaning toward mushrooms and price – inflation is a leading contributor here.