Euromonitor International’s Vitamins and Dietary Supplements in Australia (April 2014) report highlights another key trend within the vitamins/supplements sector is the rise of discount pharmacies. 

“Traditional community pharmacies continue to be put under strain as more consumers shop at large discount pharmacies.

“These stores are able to offer greater discounts through economies of scale and have been the main cause for growth in the pharmacy sector,” the report states. 

The trend is in play at chemist franchise Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse, which stocks an extensive range of vitamins and supplements.

“We have one of the largest ranges of vitamins and nutritional supplements available in this channel,” says founder and director, Anthony Yap.

“As Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse is a large format retailer we can allocate a larger space to this category hence being able to carry a more extensive range of brands and products.”

IBISWorld’s Vitamins and Supplement Stores in Australia (July 2014) recognises vitamin and supplement stores that employ specialist staff have a competitive advantage over those that do not, an approach Yap has employed within his pharmacy business. 

“We stock an extensive range of practitioner vitamins which our naturopaths and pharmacist consult and match according to the needs of our customers, which is a unique offer for our style of business,” he explains.  

“We have trained professionals in each store to ensure that the customers receive the very best advice and very best price every time.”

In an effort to ensure customers’ needs are met, Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse has developed its own training academy.

“The academy dedicates modules for training our naturopaths, vitamin consultants and pharmacy assistants on vitamins, supplements, weight loss and sports nutrition.

“We also work very closely with all the major brands to utilise their in-house trainers and collateral,” he explains.

Yap says there is a lot of innovation in the category, and Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse is constantly updating its offering so that customers have access to the latest products.

“We see a lot of product development changes to do with combination doses and varying strengths. Since our inception over 10 years ago the range of vitamin and nutritional supplements would have almost doubled in size,” he adds.

Yap attributes the industry’s growth in part to people’s changing attitudes towards natural medicine. “The customer demand, expectation and culture around natural medicine is changing in Australia and across the world. 

“In recent years people have placed a greater emphasis on health and nutrition which has really had a major impact on this sector. We recently conducted research that revealed 50 percent of people surveyed believed consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements was enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” he explains.

Yap is confident the sector will continue to grow, and sees Australians’ increasing awareness of the importance of health and nutrition as the key driver.

“We’ve seen the category expand into new areas over the past few years including moving into products such as super foods, whole foods and health foods which haven’t been traditionally available within a pharmacy.

“By introducing products such as super foods into our stores we have been able to offer customers a well-rounded approach to help them live a healthy life,” he explains.

At the end of the day, Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse will change its offering in line with customer demand. 

“We pride ourselves on being able to adapt quickly to changes within all areas of health and beauty. It’s crucial to have the products available that customers are seeking and that are being supported with national advertising campaigns.

“Last year we rolled out Super Food stands across our network of stores which we are now looking expand into a destination in store as a response to the changing category,” Yap says.