Greg Horn's business of nutrition: Expo East

Ever since reading a tattered copy of “Sugar Blues” at age 15, I have been fascinated with the link between what we put into our body and how we feel, look and perform.

When I landed my first job in the nutrition industry in 1988, it was still a less than a $4 billion cottage industry with homemade labels, magazine and word-of-mouth marketing, still some handwritten signs at Expo West, an unclear regulatory framework, super fun people, nascent science, and what we would consider today to be rudimentary products.

I saw the potential and was smitten.

From humble beginnings, the nutrition business has grown into a professionalized consumer products category with increasingly strong clinical support generating more than $60 billion in consumer sales of products annually. 

Throughout this remarkable growth and development, my fascination with health and nutrition has only grown deeper, nourished and enlivened by my good fortune to have had a center seat at some of the most interesting tables in the world as the business of nutrition has evolved. 

As a brand and retail executive and CEO, I had the chance to lead three of the most innovative companies in the industry: GNC Live Well when we added $1.1 billion to profitable revenue between 1991 and 2002; European nutrition, medical foods and infant nutrition giant Numico at a time when we had 150 scientists conducting clinical research on nutrition and health; and Garden of Life during an intensive turnaround when we rebranded, reformulated and relaunched the company.

As an entrepreneur, in collaboration with amazing partners, I co-founded about a dozen innovative nutrition companies, including Celsius, Attune, Corazonas and Nutrition Capital Network. I also served as CEO of biotech startup Axcella Health in the early days of precision fermentation.

Leveraging this experience, for more than a decade I have provided strategic and financial advice to some of the largest multinational players in today’s nutrition business, and to some of the most innovative and exciting companies in the industry as they prepare for and then execute mergers and acquisitions. Each of these experiences has helped me develop a well-rounded perspective on the nutrition business, and I still learn something new every day.

In my view, the prospects for the nutrition business have never been better. This is the most fascinating time so far for the category, thanks to the growing body of clinical evidence supporting the link between specific nutrition interventions and good health, access to loads of venture and private equity capital to fund growth for innovative companies, advances in wearables and other non-invasive ways of measuring health markers in real-time, a wave of incredible and sophisticated new talent, better packaging, better formulations and better marketing.

What makes the business of nutrition so exciting? First and more importantly, it fills an important unmet need in society, bridging the emerging science of nutrition with branded products that enable action and positively impacting the health of millions. 

Nutrition is an undisputed key to good health, and industry solutions can change lives for the better. Nutrition is an endlessly dynamic category, as new clinical findings inform new approaches to education, marketing, distribution, formulation and branding.

This dynamism in turn attracts talented and dynamic people, who drive innovation and new business approaches across the spectrum from the ingredients companies that do most of the primary research for validating claims to doctor-recommended practitioner products to mainstream fast-moving consumer items at retail and from startups to large multinational corporations.

My new column—"Greg Horn’s business of nutrition”—will be a regular presence on Natural Products Insider, with each article featuring a mixture of facts and informed opinions on topics like:

Let’s conclude this inaugural article with trends I observed at the recently held Natural Products Expo East. Although this was the final year for Expo East since the event is now retired, the trade show floor was vibrant and well attended. Here are some trends spotted at the show:

This fall will also see the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s (CRN’s) annual meeting in Laguna Niguel, California; SupplySide West in Las Vegas; and Nutrition Capital Network’s event in San Francisco. We will share relevant insights from each in future articles. Thanks for reading.