SALES JUMP 15-20 PERCENT, LED BY INCREASED POPULARITY OF ORGANIC BEEF, MILK, ICE CREAM AND VEGETABLES

SHELTON, CT – For the first time in four years since undertaking its Annual Organic Product Study, TABS Group Inc. found a significant increase in the number of American consumers reporting that they purchased organic products and a jump in overall sales.  Specifically, the percentage of all consumers stating they purchased Organics rose from 39.8 percent in January 2011 to 41.8 percent in January 2012, a 5 percent increase.

Total sales of organic products rose an estimated 15 to 20 percent. This robust growth in is due in part to consumers deciding to expand the portfolio of organic products they purchase. The survey found an 11 percent increase in the number of product types purchased by a typical organic shopper. Identical studies conducted in 2010 and 2011 showed no year-over-year increase in the number of consumers purchasing organic products, nor in the number of Organic categories that they purchase.

“The increased penetration for organic products, particularly staples like milk, eggs, meat and vegetables may signify that consumers are finding more room in their budget so they can afford the higher price points associated with organic products,” said TABS Group Founder and CEO Dr. Kurt Jetta. Sales of organic beef increased by 48 percent last year, followed by ice cream — which saw a 44 percent jump — then hair care products at 28 percent, vegetables with 26 percent, milk at 25 percent, eggs with 21 percent and at 17 percent for chicken.

DEMOGRAPHICS FORETELL CONTINUED GROWTH IN ORGANICS
Younger consumers expressed greater preference for organic products, with 48 percent of respondents 40 years in age and younger reporting usage in the last six months compared with only 34 percent of consumers aged 60 and older. Correspondingly, people under 30 bought on average 4.6 different organic products compared with 2.9 different products purchased by people 60 and older.

“Younger consumers, who typically have the least disposable income, show the greatest loyalty to organics. This will likely increase organics’ sales and market share over time as these consumers’ buying power grows and they pass their preference on to their children. If this pattern continues, the outlook for distributors of Organic products is very positive,” said Jetta. The study showed that people earning less than $30,000 a year and people with children purchased more organic products than higher earners and those without children.

For retailers, the study showed that consumers by an overwhelming margin of 62 percent to 38 percent make their organic purchases at mainstream retail stores over natural food or specialty stores.

“It appears that mainstream retailers’ expanded support for organic products may be starting to pay off,” Dr. Jetta noted. The study found that growth is also widespread with organics’ penetration by region equalizing, with customers in the western United States purchasing the largest variety of products, on average.

About TABS Group, Inc. and its Organic Product Research
The Organic Product study was conducted among 1,000 representative respondents aged 18-75. The study was fielded from January 9-13, 2012, and it replicated a study that was completed in November 2010. TABS Group, Inc. is a leading provider of research, data analysis and consulting services to the consumer products industry. TABS Group, Inc. (www.tabsgroup.com), based in Shelton, CT, has been in business since 1998.

Marion, 50, has worked with manufacturers and retailers from Fortune 500 giants to nimble start-ups, representing a wide variety of channels, including food, drugs, natural foods, vitamins and nutrition, specialty beauty, value and alternative retail. He will also lead the firm’s recruitment, training and businesses development initiatives.

“Kelly has distinguished himself throughout his career as an innovator and strategic-minded manager.  He is the perfect person to interface with our largest Bentonville client, Unilever, as well as expand our presence with other multi-national FMCG companies,” said TABS Group Founder and CEO Dr. Kurt Jetta.

Prior to joining TABS Group, Marion operated his own consulting firm where he interacted directly with major retailer chains and distribution sources. In addition to his sales and marketing experience, Marion has been involved in multiple branded transactions on both the buy- and sell-side involving private equity groups. Marion began his consumer packaged goods career at Playtex Products, holding a variety of Sales and Trade Marketing positions over an 11-year period, culminating as national accounts manager. Marion has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in Marketing with a minor in Finance.

TABS Group, a leading provider of research, data analysis and consulting services to the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, is headquartered in Shelton, CT with offices in Bentonville, AR, Boca Raton, FL, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, CA. For more information visit, www.tabsgroup.com.

“The double-digit increases we saw in the category in Q1 and Q2 2010 trailed off to low single digits at the end of last year” stated Dr. Kurt Jetta, CEO and Founder of TABS Group, Inc. “The growth trend has now stabilized in the high single digit range.”

The growth has been equally divided between an increase in the number of buyers in the category and the spending per buyer. In particular, category incidence grew from 67% of adults in 2010 to 70% in 2011, a 5% gain in buyer count. Additionally, the percentage of adults claiming to buy at least three types of supplements increased from 20% to 25% in one year.

In addition to the growth in the category, TABS Group also noted that the migration of consumers to traditional channels continues, although not as dramatically as in past years.

“We saw significant gains in sales in virtually every Mass Market outlet, except for Walmart,” commented Jetta. “In particular, there were strong promotion-related gains in Food, Drug and Target, and there was a general increase in Value consumers in Club. By contrast, Walmart’s share dropped sharply due, in our estimation, to a combination of reducing promotional support in the category and reduction of selection on branded offerings.”

Other key highlights of the study were as follows:

• Walmart lost 1.4 share points in the largest HBC category, going from 16.3% to 14.9% of category sales. They are still the largest retailer in this category.

• Club is now the largest channel for VMS at almost 18% of sales, but sales are still highly fragmented across numerous outlets. Food, Drug, Mass, Vitamin Retailers, Health Food and Online/Catalogue each account for at least 7% of sales.

• Vitamin Specialty retailers, particularly the smaller ones, saw a significant decrease in buyers. This is consistent with a general migration in the category to mainstream outlets.

• Online/Catalogue continues to see strong gains in the category as they capture a greater percentage of the heaviest category buyers (6+ types per year). Share in these outlets is now over 15% of retail sales.

In explaining the channel level results, Dr. Jetta noted, “The results of this year’s study reinforce two dynamics that we have seen in VMS: first, it is a highly promotion responsive category with high category expansion potential from aggressive promotions. Retailers that promoted more won, and those that didn’t lost.”

“Second,” Jetta continue, “Vitamins, more than any other HBC category, has what we call high space elasticity. That is, sales are highly responsive to the addition of more space and more SKU’s, particularly more branded options. Again, much of Walmart’s weakness can be traced to their over-reliance on the private label program and the reduction of branded presence.”

About TABS Group and the 2011 Vitamin Study
The 2011 TABS Group Vitamin Study was conducted among 1,000 representative respondents aged 18-75 in the TNS panel. The responses were combined with TABS Group’s proprietary modeling capabilities to derive the market size estimates for the Vitamin Category. The study was fielded in May 2011, and it replicated a study that was completed in May 2010, January 2008 and November 2006. TABS Group is a leading provider of research and consulting services to the consumer products industry. TABS Group (www.tabsgroup.com), based in Shelton, CT, has been in business since 1998, and has developed particular expertise in the Nutritionals industry.
Contact Info: Dr. Kurt Jetta, 203-925-9157, kurtjetta@tabsgroup.com

PITTSBURGH, PA (June 13, 2011) – MEI, the global leader in trade promotion management (TPM) software, today announces a deal with TABS Group, a leading marketing research and consulting company, to expand MEI’s current trade promotion offerings.

Under this agreement, MEI has contracted TABS Group to design enhanced Trade Promotion Optimization (TPO) modules for TradeInsight™, MEI’s latest innovation in trade promotion management software. The agreement with TABS Group will also give MEI exclusive use of the TABS AccuBase™ model in the promotion planning module. The partnership will draw on TABS Group’s analytical expertise—TABS Group has worked with companies such as Unilever (NYSE: UN) and Energizer (NYSE: ENR)—to drive promotional effectiveness, provide promotional scenario planning and predict successful future promotions. With the addition of TABS AccuBase™, MEI will have the leading, fully-integrated trade promotion management and trade optimization solution in the market with the ability to accurately analyze promotional effectiveness and forecast future performance.

TradeInsight has become increasingly popular as consumer goods manufacturers are outgrowing spreadsheets as a TPM tool and adopting dedicated solutions to better manage, plan, execute and analyze their trade promotion spending. As easy to use as Excel, TradeInsight gives CPG companies a clear-cut, centralized tool that provides a seamless picture of sales from warehouse to consumer, performs sales forecasting accurately and eliminates the spreadsheet integration headache.

“Together with TABS Group, we are looking forward to offering the first truly integrated approach to better equip our clients with the tools they need to plan, execute and evaluate effective trade promotions,” says Lorne Schwartz, CEO of MEI. “Accurate baselines and post-promotion analytics are essential to taking trade promotion management to the next level.”

“MEI is an ideal fit for us, as both of our companies’ heritages are based on small-to-mid-sized companies as well as those in the natural and organic industry,” said Dr. Kurt Jetta, CEO and founder of TABS Group. “We also see a terrific fit in their corporate culture, in their cost-effective solutions, their speed-to-implementation and their commitment to innovation.”

About MEI

Founded in 1983, MEI is a global provider of trade promotion management (TPM) solutions. MEI gives packaged goods companies the power to integrate TPM into existing sales and marketing accounting systems to better track trade spends and performance, planning, forecasting and reconciling. MEI’s web-hosted enterprise software solution, TradeInsight, provides a near real-time picture of sales from warehouse to consumer, performs sales forecasting accurately and eliminates the spreadsheet headache. For more information, visit www.TradeInsight.com or call 1-800-463-6634. Become a fan on Facebook or follow MEI on Twitter.

About TABS Group

TABS Group, the leader in Analytical Innovation, is dedicated to increasing clients’ sales and profit through more advanced and strategic insight combined with a more efficient analytical process. TABS AccuBase™, developed by Dr. Kurt Jetta while earning his Ph. D. in Economics from Fordham University, is the only solution to accurately measure incremental Promotional Lift. TABS Group provides additional services such as Total Store Analytics™, AisleMaster™, PanelMaster™ to Manufacturers, Retailers, and Financial Firms. Founded in 1998, TABS Group is comprised of senior executives with sales, marketing and retail experience. For more information, please visit www.tabsgroup.com or call 203-925-9157.

SHELTON, Conn., May 27, 2011 — TABS Group, Inc., a leading marketing research and consulting firm has released a new study that points to a 4-to-1 “commitment gap” in the level of support for the recent multi-billion dollar health care reform legislation passed in 2010 by Congress and signed by President Obama. That is, only 8% of those 18 years of age or older noted they are “Very Favorable” to the law, whereas 32% are noted they are “Very Unfavorable,” a 4-fold disparity among those with a strong opinion on the matter. What is particularly interesting is the strong opposition to the law among older Americans with 45% Very Unfavorable. Even stronger opposition is found, however, among Americans that are classified as Very Heavy Users of Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements (50% Very Unfavorable).

“We found the strong opposition to the law, in general, to be surprising,” commented TABS Group CEO and Founder, Dr. Kurt Jetta, “as the results show much higher negatives than most previous studies have shown. The main difference, I believe, is that we are focusing our conclusions on just those with strong opinions – Very Favorable or Unfavorable. This is a research technique that is common in marketing research, but is less utilized in voter preference research. This method better predicts consumer, or in this case voter, behavior.”

When total Favorables vs. Unfavorables are compared, there is still opposition to the law, but the differences are not as extreme: 26% Favorable (Very or Somewhat Favorable, often called Top 2 Box score) vs. 48% Unfavorable (Very or Somewhat Unfavorable, often called Bottom 2 Box Score).

“Every segment of the population we reviewed is against the law, except one: Vitamin Buyers purchasing the category at Health Food stores. This group had a Top 2 Box score of 45% vs. Bottom 2 Box score of 32%, but even their commitment gap was negative: 19% Very Favorable vs. 25% Very Unfavorable,” stated Jetta.

Other notable findings of the research:

• There was a strong correlation between negativity to the law and usage of Supplements. Only 24% of Non-Buyers were Unfavorable, whereas 50% of the Very Heavy Buyers (9% of US Population; 13% of Category Users, and 40% of Category Sales) were Very Unfavorable.

• Age was also a strong predictor of strong negativity, but not as much as heavy supplement usage. 45% of those Age 60+ were Very Unfavorable to the Health Care law.

• The highest level of Very Favorable respondents was only at 14%, Americans aged 50-59 years.

• Men are more likely to be Very Unfavorable than women (36% to 28%), but the level of Very Favorable between the two is roughly the same (9% vs. 8%).

• The level of ambivalence to the law is highest in the Northeast, where only 28% have a strong opinion one way or the other. By contrast, the West is 37%, Central is 38% and South is 49% of respondents saying Very Favorable or Unfavorable.

“My hypothesis on the correlation between supplement usage and negativity to the Health Care law is that supplement usage is a proxy measurement of the extent to which people are reliant on their own health vs. those looking for external support for health care issues,” commented Dr. Jetta.

“From a political standpoint, I believe it is extremely problematic for lawmakers to have an issue where the demographic group with the highest level of voting participation (Age 60+) is the one with the strongest level of opposition to this high visibility law.”

About TABS Group, Inc. and the Vitamin Usage Study

The Vitamin Usage study was conducted among 1,000 representative respondents aged 18-75 in the TNS panel. The study was fielded from May 16-19, 2011, and it is replicates a study that was completed in 2005, 2008 and 2010. TABS Group, Inc. is a leading provider of research and consulting services to the consumer products industry. TABS Group, Inc. (www.tabsgroup.com), based in Shelton, CT, has been in business since 1998.

CONTACT: Dr. Kurt Jetta, +1-203-925-9157, kurtjetta@tabsgroup.com