The China dietary supplement major is also the parent company of probiotic firm Life-Space.
The range of products, some of which are listed with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), are sold into China via CBEC. Those that are TGA-listed are also sold in Australia and some of the products are also available in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia, Jesse Gu, head of sales and marketing at BYHEALTH International, said that the international offerings have recently been rebranded. She also outlined the brand’s upcoming launch plans.
As part of the rebranding, the product packaging of BYHEALTH international products have been re-designed and renamed as BYHEALTH PRO.
Gu said that this would streamline the brand’s product image and allow consumers to easily recognise them as BYHEALTH’s products.
New product launch
As part of the rebranding, the company has launched a new product known as Energy PRO – an anti-fatigue dissolvable strip in end March.
Containing 50mg of caffeine per oral strip, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin, the anti-fatigue product claims to ‘boost energy and focus’ and ‘fight fatigue’ and comes in the cola-lemon flavour.
This product, made in the US, is not registered with the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) and is currently only sold in China via CBEC.
Similar to its Sleep Pro SKU which also comes in a dissolvable strip, the product is made using a patented technology Flashnutri that allows to contents to be dissolved in three seconds, the company claimed.
"We have leveraged the launch of this product (Energy PRO) on JD to promote the sales of the other products as well. For example, we have bundled Energy PRO with Sleep PRO for morning and night consumption. Doing so has boosted the sale of Sleep PRO as well. Our milk thistle product was also promoted and came in number 1 on JD under the liver protection category," Gu said.
She added that China’s liver health and eye health supplements categories – which were associated with concerns around energy and fatigue – has continued to rise.
“The sales of the liver protection category had risen by 109 per cent while that of eye protection was up by 101 per cent between 2020 and 2021, based on data from JD.
“In Alibaba, the sales of lutein supplements were up 52.9 per cent. As you can see, the trends on JD and Alibaba are quite similar…We always want to follow the trend, this is the first step for our new product development, where we will need to analyse the big data, the categories that are seeing a big increase, and the categories where the market share has not reached a point of saturation yet.”
Data that JD has shared with NutraIngredients-Asia shows that probiotics, functional drinks, and throat clearing supplements were the fastest growing categories on JD Health last year.
In the categories of liver protection and eye health, Swisse, BYHEALTH, Nature’s Way and Doppelherz were among the top selling brands in JD last year.
Earlier in Q1, BYHEALTH also launched Women’s Probiotics PRO powder for intimate health.
The product contains six strains, namely Lactobacillus gasseri EB01, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus PB01, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus HN001, Lactobacillus acidophilus LA 14, and Lactobacillus crispatus KS127.1.
The women’s intimate health category is also a rising category in China, as observed by Culturelle China.
In the next quarter, BYHEALTH is looking to launch a men’s vitality wellness and a weight management product under its international range.
The men’s vitality product, which comes in tablet form, will contain the botanical epimedium and zinc. It claims to “support testosterone level,” and “support reproductive system health.”
This product, according to Gu, could also be bundled with the brand’s milk thistle supplement to target the men’s health market.
Market trends
BYHEALTH has observed different consumption trends in the Asia-Pacific markets that it currently operates in.
For example, Gu pointed out that while milk thistle was highly popular among men in China, partly due to the drinking culture, collagen products were more popular in Hong Kong.
Within South East Asia, BYHEALTH is selling its products in Singapore and there are plans to enter the Malaysian and Vietnamese markets.
On the other hand, the company’s construction of a factory in Melbourne has been almost completed.
This factory, which will be responsible for manufacturing selected BYHEALTH International products, is also slated to be open for public visit, which will be BYHEALTH’s second factory to do so after its first in Zhuhai, China.
