Member Exclusive   //   March 10, 2026

Brands Briefing: Wellness brands take over Expo West to woo retail buyers

By Gabriela Barkho
Courtesy of Grüns

This year’s Natural Products Expo West show drew the typical lineup of functional sodas and better-for-you snack brands. But this year, lots of brands promoting collagen, hormonal supplements and other wellness products also descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center to show off their newest offerings. 

Historically, Expo West has primarily focused on food and beverage. But as one investor put it, the trade show has always attracted some form of wellness products, given its focus on the natural and organic channels. “It used to be these obscure snake oil-esque products,” she said. “But over the last few years, real startups with actual retail presence are coming here to exhibit.”

It just goes to show how much wellness culture has permeated more areas of retail, as retailers like Ulta and Target increase their wellness assortments in stores. And while these retailers are still figuring out how to merchandise and promote these wellness products in stores, startup founders turned to Expo West this year to inspire retail buyers and generate buzz around their products.

Grüns was a prominent first-time wellness exhibitor on the Expo West floor, where its team offered samples of the brand’s supplements, including new nootropics and immunity gummies. Meanwhile, one of the event’s corridors was filled with booths from feminine care brands like The Honey Pot Company and Flex, as well as menopause care brands O Positiv and the newly-launched Libré.

Meeting wellness buyers where they are 

Gummy supplement brand Urvi, which was founded in Berlin, Germany in 2024, was also on-site, as part of Expo’s “Hot Products & Snack Lab” hall. Urvi co-founder David Keuchen manned the brand’s booth with co-founder Tilman Schäfer.

Keuchen said the duo first came to Expo in 2025 as attendees to get a feel for the U.S. supplement landscape and prepare for their official exhibition in 2026. “We created functional gummies with authentic German gummy taste, but formulated with clinical dosages, bioavailable ingredients and a scientific advisory board,” Keuchen said. “Our credo is ‘works like science, tastes like candy.’” 

Urvi is currently active in Germany and in the U.S. via Amazon and its direct-to-consumer website. Keuchen added that while the category is already competitive, the brand’s growing presence at Expo is about showcasing Urvi’s differentiation. “Gummy supplements are huge here [in the U.S.], yet we saw room for something that actually tastes like original gummy candy from the home of the gummy bear,” he said. He added that, while preparing and installing a booth was a big task for the small startup of four, the team sourced all necessary materials locally in the U.S. to ship directly to Anaheim.

Some wellness brands did not invest in display booths, but still attended Expo this year to dip their toes in. Hannah Perez, the founder of protein beverage brand Seeq, floated around Expo West and set up meetings independently.   

Vivek Lal, the founder and CEO of gut health-focused brand Resbiotic, took a similar approach during his first Expo West trip.

“Being at Expo West is crucial for us as a company because Resbiotic is at an inflection point,” Lal said, adding that the focus is now expanding into retail after launching direct-to-consumer in 2024. Being at Expo allowed Lal to connect directly with potential retail partners seeking medically backed wellness products for their shelves. Lal added that the competition in this space is especially fierce, as consumers are becoming more discerning and skeptical of trend-driven supplements. “We see a major opportunity to meet retailers who want products backed by real data and outcomes to support this demand,” he said.

Why Expo West is proving important for health and wellness category  

This year, U.K.-based Revive Collagen, the self-described ingestible skin-care brand, returned to Expo West for the third time.

Revive Collagen, which launched at The Vitamin Shoppe and Ulta Beauty in 2025, was onsite to promote Revive Sleep and Revive Inner Calm drinkables. 

Shawn Haynes, who came on as the U.S. president of Revive Collagen last year, said his own first Expo West this year builds on the brand’s ambition to push further into mass retail, including at grocery and big-box stores. “Our strategy is to go to market like a beauty brand, including influencer partnerships and events,” And at a show like Expo West, Haynes said, the brand is able to venture outside its beauty sphere and show retailers how the brand’s products can be merchandised based on the customer base’s needs. 

Haynes said, now that the ingestible beauty category is becoming more established in the U.S., brands like Revive Collagen have to sell retailers on where to place their products in their stores. 

“Being here helps us understand, by talking to the retailers, how to best show up in the supplement aisle,” Haynes said. So far, the show has yielded positive results and brought in a number of retail leads for the brand. Haynes confirmed that the brand has at least one major retail launch scheduled for later this year.

For first-time exhibitor Urvi, the investment in showing at Expo felt like the next logical step in its brand journey — now the brand is focused on continuing conversations with buyers to hopefully secure more retail distribution. “We felt having our own booth in 2026 was the right move, both to generate meaningful retail and distribution contacts and to collect direct consumer feedback in person,” said Keuchen.

  • Protein sodas and sparkling beverages were all over Expo West, off the heels of Barebell’s protein energy drinks going viral late last year. Rise Wellness previewed its Protein Pop Plus, which contains 30 grams of protein per can and is currently rolling out at Costco locations nationwide. Meanwhile, Beyond Meat sampled Beyond Immerse, the company’s first-ever beverage line, as the faux meat brand continues to reinvent itself. 
  • Speaking of protein snacking: Various frozen dessert and ice cream brands showcased their latest protein-packed innovations. But one standout was David Protein, which did not exhibit at the actual show. Instead, the brand ran out-of-home stunt ads on trucks around town, teasing ice cream pints that boast 30 grams of protein and 260 calories. 
  • Sour flavor profiles also made a splash this year. Countless brands showed off their latest tart flavors. They ranged from Built, with its sour puff bars, to several brands getting in on the ongoing cherry craze — there was Nixie’s new cherry cola and Cheribundi’s tart cherry recovery line. 

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