THE UK’s fast growing functional gummy brand Nutrigums, has announced a new appointment to scale its operations overseas after receiving its first international exclusive distribution agreement.
Terjinder Singh Purewal, joins the team as Nutrigums head of international expansion and distribution. Most recently as CEO at Pure & Well Limited, a health and wellness brand founded and headquartered in the UK, with partnerships across numerous international markets, Terjinder has developed an extensive international network of contacts and a wide ranging portfolio of products over a number of years.
Fabian Whittingham, co-founder of Nutrigums said: “We are truly honoured and excited to announce the latest appointment of Terjinder who brings many years of strong experience working in the FMCG sector in international markets, having held high level previous positions including that of global franchise manager for Holland & Barrett.”
The move has accelerated a number of growth opportunities for the brand, which expect to acquire exclusive deals in several international markets in the coming months.
Terjinder said: “We are very confident that the innovative and growing range of high quality Nutrigums products shall be in high demand in international markets.”
Following a successful £2 million pound investment, and after showing promising first full year trading results in 2021 of £1.5m in revenues, Nutrigums has rapidly expanded its popular functional plant-based vitamin gummy ranges, having sold hundreds of thousands of units through some of the UK’s largest retailers including Amazon, Asda, Morrisons, Poundland and Superdrug.
The emerging trend for functional foods with enhanced nutritional properties has derived from pandemic weary consumers who have increasingly taken greater responsibility for their own healthcare and wellbeing. This shift has driven the global functional food market to be projected to reach $137.1 billion by 2026, from $98.9 billion in 2021.
In turn, Fabian says brands have had to swiftly adapt to meet these requirements: “Vitamin brands cannot simply stand still when it comes to addressing the new needs of customers. With consumers taking a more active and preventative approach to their health there is more demand for convenient dose forms and the necessity to develop new technologies to engage with a wider consumer base.
“We’ve designed formulations that optimize the everyday physical and mental performance of an individual, with more eco-conscious consumers, vegan and vegetarian applicable products becoming high on the agenda. With worldwide economic change, affordability also comes into play, and brands must produce accessible ranges to engage with consumers to offer the right solution.”
Addressing this need, Nutrigums has developed a series of affordable Essential vitamin gummies at prices which are more affordable to the everyday shopper. The business has also developed a specialist range in which the gummies use a new state of the art fibre and fruit-based technology as a natural sweetener and gelling agent.
With individually branded SKU’s for trending ailments such as ‘sleep’, ‘stress’, ‘energy’ and ‘immunity’ high in demand, Nutrigums has a solution at all price points and has released the next stage of innovation in the Essentials series in June 2022 with its Happy Tums product for gut health and digestive care. Infused with probiotics it is just a taster of what is yet to come from the brand to disrupt the functional gummy market.
Fabian, who had previously worked for more than a two decades delivering product innovation and contract supply chains to some of the largest organisations in the wellness industry is keen to continue its current trajectory.
“Our ambitious team and product development pipeline is going from strength to strength, with strong progress in trading over the past year Nutrigums has the tools to deliver and execute an exciting brand into all markets. Now, it feels like the right time to press ahead with our international plans to make a difference to everyday health globally – and we are ready for the challenge.”
