Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. (Natural Grocers) operates as a specialty retailer of natural and organic groceries and dietary supplements.
The company offers high-quality products and brands, including an extensive selection of widely recognized natural and organic food, dietary supplements, body care products, pet care products and books. It offers its customers an average of approximately 21,000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) of natural and organic products per comparable store (stores...
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. (Natural Grocers) operates as a specialty retailer of natural and organic groceries and dietary supplements.
The company offers high-quality products and brands, including an extensive selection of widely recognized natural and organic food, dietary supplements, body care products, pet care products and books. It offers its customers an average of approximately 21,000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) of natural and organic products per comparable store (stores open for 13 months or longer), including an average of approximately 6,700 SKUs of dietary supplements.
In the company's grocery departments, it sells USDA certified organic produce and does not approve for sale grocery products that are known to contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners or partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils. In addition, the company sells pasture-raised, non-confinement dairy products, free-range eggs (i.e., from chickens that are not only cage-free but also provided with sufficient space to move) and naturally raised meats (i.e., from animals that are not known to have been treated with antibiotics, hormones or growth promoters, or fed animal by-products).
The company offers its science-based nutrition education through its trained Crew members, its Health Hotline magazine, community outreach programs, one-on-one nutrition health coaching, nutrition classes, cooking demonstrations, and its website.
Markets
The company operates within the natural products retail industry, which is a subset of the United States grocery industry and the dietary supplement business. This industry includes conventional supermarkets, natural, gourmet and specialty food markets, domestic and foreign-based mass and discount retailers, warehouse clubs, independent health food stores, dietary supplement retailers, drug stores, farmers' markets, food co-ops, online retailers, meal delivery services, and multi-level marketers.
Strategy
The company is pursuing several strategies to continue its profitable growth, including expanding its store base; increasing sales from existing customers; and growing its customer base.
Stores
The company's stores offer a comprehensive selection of natural and organic groceries and dietary supplements in a smaller-store format that aims to provide a convenient, clean, and easily shopped environment for its customers.
The company's stores range from approximately 7,000 to 16,000 selling square feet, and average approximately 11,000 selling square feet. Approximately one quarter of the company's stores' selling square footage is dedicated to dietary supplements. Most of its stores also include a dedicated community room available for public gatherings, a demonstration kitchen for cooking education and/or lecture space. The company's comparable stores sell an average of approximately 21,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) of natural and organic products per store, including an average of approximately 6,700 SKUs of dietary supplements.
Products
The company sells the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic produce. The company sells dairy products from pasture-raised, non-confined livestock, and only sells eggs from free-range or pastured hens.
The company sells meats from naturally raised animals that are not known to have been treated with antibiotics, hormones or growth promoters, or fed animal by-products.
The company sells seafood from sustainable fisheries or ecologically responsible farm-raised operations. The company does not sell distilled spirits, tobacco products or e-cigarettes. The company's stores are fully merchandised with an extensive assortment of natural and organic products.
The company operates both a full-service natural and organic grocery store and a dietary supplement store within a single retail location.
The products in the company's stores include:
Grocery
The company offers a broad selection of natural and organic grocery products with an emphasis on minimally processed and single ingredient products that are not known to contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners or partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils. Additionally, it carries a wide variety of products associated with special diets such as gluten free, vegetarian, and non-dairy. The company's grocery products include:
Produce: The company sells only USDA certified organic produce and source from local, organic producers whenever feasible. Its selection varies based on seasonal availability, and it strives to offer a variety of organic produce offerings that are not typically found at conventional food retailers.
Bulk Food: The company sells a wide selection of private label repackaged bulk products, including dried fruits, nuts, grains, granolas, teas, herbs, and spices. It also sells peanut and almond butters, freshly ground in-store under the Natural Grocers brand.
Natural Grocers Brand Products: The company sells an expanding range of Natural Grocers brand private label products, including grocery staples, household products, bulk foods, and vitamins and dietary supplements. The company's Natural Grocers brand private label products provide its customers with high-quality, affordable offerings that satisfy its rigorous product standards. During the year ended September 30, 2023 (fiscal year 2023), the company expanded its line of Natural Grocers brand products with a number of new offerings, including organic eggs from regenerative farms, organic flavored coffee, and organic mustard.
Dry, Frozen, and Canned Groceries: The company offers a wide variety of natural and organic dry, frozen, and canned groceries, including cereals, soups, baby foods, frozen entrees, and snack items. It offers a broad selection of natural chocolate bars and energy, protein, and food bars.
Meats and Seafood: The company offers naturally raised or organic meat products. The naturally raised meat products it offers come from animals that are not known to have been treated with antibiotics, hormones or growth promoters, fed animal by-products, or raised in concentrated animal feeding operations. The company's seafood items are generally frozen at the time of processing and sold from its freezer section, thereby ensuring freshness and reducing food spoilage and safety issues. The seafood the company sells is generally sourced from sustainable fisheries or ecologically responsible farm-raised operations and excludes endangered species.
Dairy Products, Dairy Substitutes, and Eggs: The company offers a broad selection of natural and organic dairy products, such as milk, cheeses, yogurts, and beverages, as well as eggs and non-dairy substitutes made from almonds, coconuts, rice, and soy. The company's stores sell only pasture-raised, non-confinement dairy products, and free-range eggs (i.e., from chickens that are not only cage-free but also provided with sufficient space to move).
Prepared Foods: The company's stores have a convenient selection of refrigerated prepared fresh food items, including salads, sandwiches, salsa, hummus, and wraps. The size of this offering varies by location.
Bread and Baked Goods: The company receives regular deliveries of a wide selection of bakery products for its bakery section, which includes an extensive selection of gluten-free items.
Beverages: The company offers a wide variety of beverages containing natural and organic ingredients. It also offers self-serve filtered drinking water that is dispensed into one-gallon or larger containers provided by its customers.
Beer, Wine, and Hard Cider: The company sells craft beer, craft hard cider, and/or organic and biodynamic wine at certain stores in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Texas.
Dietary Supplements
The company's dietary supplement department primarily sells name-brand supplements, as well as a line of Natural Grocers brand private label dietary supplements. The company generally offers several different formulations and potencies for each type of product in order to meet its customers' varying needs.
Other
Body Care: The company offers a full range of cosmetics, skin care, hair care, fragrance and personal care products containing natural, and organic ingredients. Its body care offerings range from bargain-priced basics to high-end formulations.
Pet Care. The company offers a full line of natural pet care and food products that comply with its human food guidelines.
Household and General Merchandise: The company's offerings include sustainable, hypo-allergenic and fragrance-free household products, including cleaning supplies, paper products, dish and laundry soap and other common household products, including diapers. It also offers Natural Grocers branded paper products, cleaning products, and other household products.
Books and Handouts: The company stocks approximately 200 titles in each store's book department. Titles cover various approaches to diet, lifestyle, and health. Additionally, it offers hundreds of handouts on various health topics and dietary supplements to its customers free of charge.
The company's dietary supplement suppliers must follow Food and Drug Administration (FDA) current good manufacturing practices supported by quality assurance testing for both the base ingredients and the finished product.
Each Natural Grocers store is certified as an organic handler and processor by an accredited USDA certifier in the calendar year after it opens, and annually thereafter. The company operates all its stores in compliance with the National Organic Program standards, which restrict the use of certain substances for cleaning and pest control and require rigorous recordkeeping and methods to prevent co-mingling and contamination, among other requirements.
Marketing and Advertising
A significant portion of the company's marketing efforts focuses on educating its customers on the benefits of natural and organic grocery products, dietary supplements, and its quality standards. The company's customer outreach programs provide practical general nutrition knowledge to a variety of groups and individuals, schools, businesses, families, and seniors.
{N}power Customer Rewards Program
The company introduced the {N}power customer rewards program in fiscal year 2015. {N}power members receive digital coupons, discounted pricing on certain staple items (such as free-range eggs), personalized offers, and other rewards, all by providing their phone number at the time of checkout. The company had approximately 2.1 million registered {N}power members as of September 30, 2023.
Health Hotline and Holly Deals
The Health Hotline is a four-color magazine that contains a mix of in-depth health and nutrition articles, along with a selection of popular sale items. The articles aim to be relevant, science-based and written to reflect the most recent research findings. During fiscal year 2023, the company continued to enhance its Health Hotline magazine.
Special Promotions and Sponsorships
During fiscal year 2023, the company organized special promotions to coincide with certain calendar events, such as Resolution Reset Week in January, Earth Day in April, and on the 68th anniversary of the company's founding in August.
Website and Social Media
The company maintains NaturalGrocers.com as its official company website to host store information, sale and discount offers, educational materials, product and standards information, policies and contact forms, advocacy, and news items and e-commerce capabilities. Its website is interlinked with other online and social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, and YouTube. The company also organized social media influencer campaigns in key markets.
Advertising
The company's advertising activities in fiscal year 2023 included conducting television advertising campaigns; conducting radio advertising campaigns in the support of new store openings and store relocations; conducting outdoor advertising campaigns; conducting targeted direct mail campaigns; newspaper advertising; utilizing organic search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization and display advertisements to deliver more customer traffic to its website and stores; and investments in paid and organic placements on social media platforms.
Home Delivery Services
As of September 30, 2023, the company offered online ordering and home delivery services at its stores in partnership with a third party.
New Store Openings
The company uses various targeted marketing efforts to support the successful introduction of its new stores in their individual markets. In addition to the distribution of its Health Hotline magazine and Internet and social media efforts targeted to the region, the company utilizes direct mail distribution of introductory booklets and postcards promoting its brand and providing discounts and other incentives for new customers. The company also focuses on community relationship-building activities, including a series of lectures and cooking and other demonstrations in each new store's community room and/or demonstration kitchen. Other new store promotional activities include gift card and prize giveaways, sweepstakes, musical performances, appearances by its sponsorship partners, cash donations to local food banks, and participation by local community leaders and organizations.
Pre-Ordering of Holiday Turkeys
The company offers an in-store and online process to pre-order organic and free-range turkeys for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property
The company has received the registration of trademarks not only for Natural Grocers, Vitamin Cottageand Health Hotlinebut also for its logo, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottageand Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocersfor appropriate categories of trade. In addition, it has received the registration of service marks for EDAP - Every Day Affordable Price, {N}power, Organic Headquarters, Organic Month Headquarters, Organic Produce Headquarters, Natural Grocers Cottage Wine and Craft Beer, Natural Grocers Cottage Craft Beerand Resolution Reset Dayand registrations of trademarks for These Came First and Natural Grocers Top 10 Nutrition Trends.
Seasonality
The company's business is active throughout the calendar year (September 30, 2023) and does not experience significant fluctuation caused by seasonal changes in consumer purchasing.
Suppliers
For the year ended September 30, 2023, approximately 68% of the company's total purchases were from United Natural Foods Inc. and its subsidiaries (UNFI). In August 2023, the company extended its long-term relationship with UNFI as its primary supplier of products in the natural, fresh, and produce categories through September 3, 2028, subject to automatic renewals for successive one-year periods unless otherwise terminated by either party. The company has contracts with third-party manufacturers to produce groceries and dietary supplements under the Natural Grocers brand.
Regulatory Compliance
The safety, formulation, manufacturing, processing, packaging, importation, labeling, promotion, advertising, and distribution of products the company sells in its stores, including private label products, are subject to regulation by several federal agencies, including the FDA, the Federal Trade Commission (the FTC), the USDA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (the CPSC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), as well as by various state and local agencies.
Competition
The company's competition varies by market and includes conventional supermarkets, such as Kroger and Safeway; domestic mass or discount retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target; natural and gourmet markets, such as Whole Foods and The Fresh Market; foreign-based discount retailers, such as Aldi, Lidl and Ahold Delhaize; specialty food retailers, such as Sprouts and Trader Joe's; warehouse clubs, such as Sam's Club and Costco; dietary supplement retailers, such as GNC and The Vitamin Shoppe; online retailers; meal delivery services; independent health food stores; drug stores; farmers' markets; food co-ops; and multi-level marketers.
History
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. was founded in 1955. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2012.