Protein bar demand abstract?
- Joe Wicks sparked scrutiny of protein bars and ingredient high quality
- Market leaders noticed declines whereas selective shopper demand continued rising
- Some manufacturers suffered losses regardless of earlier development and mainstream class enlargement
- Less complicated actual‑meals formulations gained momentum with robust 12 months‑on‑12 months development
- Class evolution reveals customers selecting credibility transparency and better ingredient high quality
It’s been three months since Joe Wicks launched a scathing assault on protein bars.
In his Channel 4 documentary, Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill, the health guru teamed up with physician and TV presenter Chris van Tulleken, to ‘expose’ the doubtful ingredient decks of many main manufacturers, highlighting the inclusion of chemical compounds, sweeteners, gums, emulsifiers and – as Wicks sees it – little else.
Tulleken and Wicks even went as far as to concoct the ‘unhealthiest ultra-processed’ protein bar they may, full with 96 authorized components to ‘spotlight how laughable the entire trade is’ and branding it ‘Killer’ for good measure.
Business commentators have been fast to level out the present’s shortfalls.
As Meals Navigator stated on the time: “[Wicks] has to this point solely highlighted a listing of components which were utilized in 1000’s of merchandise on grocery store cabinets for many years. These components, repeatedly confirmed secure by trusted science, aren’t inherently harmful and aren’t consumed within the exaggerated quantities he purports.”
“Turning diet right into a horror story isn’t the reply,” Tim Spector additionally wrote in an Unbiased op-ed. The present “feeds the identical form of worry and confusion that’s already rife in meals tradition. Folks don’t simply want extra worry; they want a greater understanding and sensible assist.”
However did its messaging nonetheless hit a nerve with customers? Did Wicks’ anti-UPF rhetoric drive curiosity in ‘cleaner’ alternate options, for instance? Or have basic protein bars remained resilient throughout the efficiency diet class regardless of this newest movie star campaign?
Market main declines
It’s clear that, even previous to the present being aired, some main protein bars highlighted by Wicks confronted challenges.
Although some manufacturers talked about within the documentary achieved robust development in 2025, together with Glanbia-owned Optimum Vitamin which noticed quantity gross sales climb 11.7% and Huel by 31.1%, in accordance with The Grocer’s Prime Merchandise 2025, market chief Grenade struggled, with a 15.9% fall in unit gross sales in the identical interval. Fulfil and PhD, additionally named by Wicks, each suffered important losses too.
Grenade has put the decline all the way down to a “normalisation of demand” after a powerful development spurt in 2023 specifically, when the discharge of its Oreo-branded protein bars noticed revenues rise 56.5% to £92.3m (€106.6m).
However for Kieran Fisher, founder and MD at KBF Enterprises – which grew volumes 3.1% – there’s additionally a differentiation being newly drawn by consumers, which can clarify a divergence in fortunes each pre and put up documentary.
Although Wicks claims didn’t “harm the class” as an entire, it did “speed up a obligatory distinction,” says Fisher. “Protein bars at the moment are mainstream meals merchandise, so scrutiny is inevitable. The problem is treating all bars as in the event that they’re the identical, when the truth is that formulation high quality varies massively.”
Warrior’s personal RAW bars are constituted of “actual meals, not white powders and synthetic sweeteners,” he factors out. And “customers are embracing that”.
In accordance with IRI whole market knowledge, Warrior RAW bars grew worth by +78% and items by +99% year-on-year within the newest quarter, “which clearly reveals that bars positioned round easier components and clear performance are gaining share. The information demonstrates that customers aren’t abandoning protein bars, they’re changing into extra selective.”
Cleansing up the class
Better tendency amongst customers to scrutinise protein bars can be driving new entrants into the market, many with a transparent give attention to ingredient provenance and ease.
PRIMA, for instance, launched in 2025 and has been billed ‘the primary to market ancestral protein bar’. “We based PRIMA in response to what we noticed as a rising disconnect between what number of protein bars are marketed and what’s truly inside them,” says co-founder Dominick DeLegge. “A big portion of the protein bar class nonetheless depends on extremely processed components and lengthy, technical ingredient lists which customers are realising means extra processing and due to this fact much less diet.”
Every PRIMA incorporates 16g of grass-fed animal-based protein, together with 100% grass-fed beef tallow, collagen, and whey, sweetened solely by natural uncooked honey. Every bar can be made with no seed oils, no synthetic sweeteners, is GMO-free and gluten free. The bars retain the flavour profiles which have formed protein bar innovation in recent times although, with a variety that features mocha, salted caramel and Cookie Dough.
“This isn’t about being ‘cleaner’ for the sake of a advertising and marketing declare, it’s about being actual meals that’s nourishing and isn’t a sweet bar wrapped and marketed like actual meals,” insists DeLegge. “We consider consuming a protein bar must be easy, clear, and nourishing, whereas nonetheless delivering on efficiency and macros.”
For Fisher, this reorientation of the protein bar class is much less about one health influencer and a divisive TV present, and extra a sign of the inevitable maturation of the class. “It’s not nearly simply style and emulating confectionary,” he says. “It’s about credibility, ingredient high quality and whether or not a product matches naturally into an on a regular basis routine.
“The truth that we’re seeing robust development in bars which can be constructed nearer to meals than confectionery tells you this isn’t a decline – it’s an evolution.”
