When long-time pals Joely Walker and Holly Brooke attended a friend’s birthday lunch on the King’s Road in west London in 2024, they had no idea they would be inspired to go into business together. By the end of the meal, they did.
Walker was struck by the discovery as they talked that Brooke was “taking 30 supplements a day” in “a mixture of teas, capsules and powders” to help regulate her gut. She suggested combining the mixture into a formula and “two days later [they] were speaking to manufacturers”. This led to the launch of their supplement brand We Are Regular last year.
Clearly they were onto something. The vitamins, minerals and supplements market in the UK was valued at £1 billion in the year to January 25, according to data from Worldpanel, a firm that analyses consumer behaviour. This figure was an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year — and it is expected to keep growing.
Holly Brooke and Joely Walker We Are Regular
Weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro are fuelling demand and brands such as Vitabiotics, Myprotein and Applied Nutrition are cashing in. But critics warn that the industry is poorly regulated.
“There’s more regulation around pet food than there is around supplements,” said Kate Prince, founder and chief executive of Ancient + Brave, a supplement brand that counts Dame Kelly Holmes and Davina McCall among its fans. “Pet food is rigorous, it’s really heavily regulated … but there is almost nothing around the supplements you put in your body.”
Advertising complaints are also on the rise: 512 were logged with Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last year, up from 380 the year before. As Britain chomps its way through powders, pills and patches, is the industry ripe for a crackdown?
According to Kat Cole, chief executive of supplement brand AG1, much of the sector’s boom is down to the rise of fat jabs. Weight-loss drugs are creating “one of the greatest tailwinds to the industry right now,” she said. “It stands to reason that most people on a GLP-1 drug are simply eating less; if you are eating less, you have lower access to nutrients.”
Dame Kelly Holmes is a fan of Ancient + BraveLUCY YOUNG FOR THE TIMES
Thomas Ryder, chief executive of London-listed Applied Nutrition, concurred. “Consumers are realising, ‘OK, I might not be able to get a meal in me, but I might be able to get a protein shake … I’m going to need some pre- or probiotics.’ And that’s where you’ve got a new cohort of consumers.”
Research published on May 13 suggested that about a third of the weight lost by patients on fat jabs came from muscle and bone — making the need to replenish nutrients via supplements all the more pressing.
Cole said: “If you’re having one meal instead of four … that’s a recipe for malnourishment … You do need supplements more than someone who’s not on a GLP-1.”
She added: “If [people on GLP-1s] are not working out and getting enough protein, creatine and things that work to support the muscles … [they’re] just skinny, tired and bloated. That’s not what people want.”
Kat ColeAP/Business Wire
The flagship product of the Nevada-based AG1 is a multivitamin powder. The company, founded in 2010, gained “unicorn” status four years ago when a funding round placed its valuation at more than $1 billion.
AG1 counts the actor Hugh Jackman, Formula 1 star Sir Lewis Hamilton and the England rugby teams as ambassadors, and is pushing into the UK market, with listings at retailers such as Ocado and Healf.
Sir Lewis Hamilton and the England men and women’s rugby teams are ambassadors for AG1 ALEX BIERENS DE HAAN/Getty IMAGES
MOLLY DARLINGTON/Getty IMAGES
As the supplement market expands rapidly, some companies have started to make bolder claims. The number of complaints about supplement adverts received by the Advertising Standards Authority has rocketed in the past few years.
Last year, the ASA made 19 rulings against various supplement makers that promised their products could help with issues as diverse as prostate health, menopause, autism and ADHD.
“We are seeing more ads making exaggerated or inappropriate health claims, particularly online and particularly where they blur the line between warm and fuzzy general wellbeing and more medicinal health-related claims,” said Nicky Baker, regulatory projects manager at the ASA.
In March, the watchdog upheld complaints over five companies that implied in their advertising that their food supplements could help treat or manage the symptoms of the menopause and pre-menstrual syndrome. They were deemed to have made unauthorised health claims that breached the advertising code of practice.
“People don’t often realise that supplements are legally classed as foods, not medicines, so they can’t be advertised as treating or curing medical conditions,” Baker said.
The regulatory environment can be confusing. Products fall under the remit of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) because supplements are classed as food. However, sometimes local trading standards departments are required to enforce laws, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) occasionally has to get involved if the products make specific medical claims.
Rebecca Sudworth, director of policy at the FSA, said: “Food supplements must be safe and accurately labelled, wherever they’re sold … Where unsafe or mislabelled products are found, we expect enforcement action to be taken by local authorities.”
But Prince of Ancient + Brave said: “It’s really the Wild West out there. The only thing we have is that there are certain regulatory amounts of vitamins that you have on your packaging before you can make certain claims. But they may not be a therapeutic amount or a potent amount; they may just be a minimal amount in order for a company to make a claim.”
Kate PrinceSarah Weal
The picture has been further complicated since Brexit, as Great Britain and the EU operate under different food safety laws. The EU replaced regulations from 2006 with fresh guidance from 2023, which added new controlled substances based on the most recent scientific discoveries. Britain still follows the 2006 guidelines, which were amended in 2013 and are regularly updated.
“We’re all relying on the ASA to find these people and tell them that their advertising or their packaging, or the claims they’re making, are wrong, inadequate or outright lies,” said Prince. “There’s nobody policing this or putting money behind it. We need a protocol body to set the standards.”
She cited the example of collagen, which can help make skin and hair look younger. “Everyone will go, ‘Well, it’s collagen.’ But actually you’ve got to look at the provenance of where it’s coming from.
“A lot of products are labelled fish collagen and that can mean it’s farmed and it’s full of potential hormones and antibiotics, and it also could be coming from parts of Asia and is really unpoliced.”
While the regulatory environment is mainly reactive, the barrier to entry into the industry is relatively low.
“It is easier than it has ever been to launch a company,” said Cole of AG1. “You use AI, create a brand, get a Shopify account and work with a co-manufacturer who makes a product … it’s easier than ever for a brand to show up in the world and look pretty legitimate.”
Ryder at Applied Nutrition said the sector was “a bit like fast fashion, where things pop up, it creates a bit of a craze, people buy it a lot, they want a lot of it — and then it falls off”.
So what’s the solution? AG1, Ancient + Brave and Applied Nutrition have all emphasised that third-party verification sets their products apart.
Cole said: “You cannot assume what is on the label is actually in the product unless a third party is measuring it over time.”
The move towards verification would be “onerous” for smaller companies, said Prince, because they would have to pay for the testing. However, she stressed, “it’s all about being third-party regulated and, actually, probably clinically tested”.
Another solution, Cole suggested, would be for the government and regulatory authorities to have “a little more of an eye on label compliance”.
Walker of We Are Regular has a final piece of advice for consumers rushing to put powders in their drinks. “Supplements are there to supplement a lifestyle, not replace it,” she said.