The Vitamin Shoppe CEO on how COVID-19 is changing the supplements industry

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi discuss the state of the supplements industry with The Vitamin Shoppe CEO, Sharon Leite.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have turned to the supplement industry, looking to everything from immunity boosters to probiotics to CBD products to help cope with the uncertainty that the virus has brought on. Joining us now to discuss how exactly the industry is faring is Sharon Leite, the Vitamin Shoppe CEO. Sharon, good to see you.

You know, I know from personal experience early on and even somewhat recently, I've had a tough time finding things like vitamin C. I like to take elderberry to boost the immune system. What's demand been like for those products, and what has supply been like at the Vitamin Shoppe?

SHARON LEITE: Hi, Alexis. Well, thank you for having me this morning. Well, certainly all of those products have been in hot demand, and we certainly had our challenges in the supply chain early on in the pandemic. Since that time, things are back to normal, and we are well in stock in a lot of those products.

And as you've seen through the pandemic and as we-- you know, from the very beginning from March through the period of today, the thinking on that and what is helping you through this to boost immunity has continued to change. And so certainly we're seeing not only zinc continue to be very strong for us but even Dr. Fauci even just recently said the importance of vitamin C and vitamin D to boost immunity.

So that trend continues, but in addition we're starting to see things around stress, around sleep, around people that have been cooped up in their homes and they're wanting to get back outside. Fortunately, the summer months has helped some of that. And so we're certainly also seeing changes in terms of getting back into the sports-nutrition side of the business with sports nutrition and proteins and other products to kind of help you get back on track and get back to your fitness goals.

BRIAN SOZZI: Sharon, full and fair disclosure, I'm in your stores pretty much every weekend, and I've been noticing a lot more different products, almost like a product-innovation boom. What are some of the newest food trends you're seeing? I see protein chips, different types of bars that these things were not necessarily here before the pandemic.

SHARON LEITE: Yeah, healthy snacking is really important because, as we all know, getting out and your normal routine of going out to eat and, you know, people are getting fatigued potentially, you know, cooking at home. So the ability to get healthy snacks is certainly important, and so we've really certainly leaned in on those types of categories so that we can provide options for our consumers.