The writing has been on the wall for SlimFast for years

The decision to sell the SlimFast brand, announced this week by Glanbia, should come as no surprise considering the disappointing performance of the brand in recent years.

Acquired by Glanbia for €350m (€333m) in November 2018, the SlimFast brand had a strong first full year, growing by “double digits” according to the company’s annual report for 2019.

However, things started to go into reverse as early as 2020, with shipments for SlimFast in the key US market dropping by 9%.

2021 saw another drop in sales in the US, with the company noting in its annual report that the performance “reflected headwinds in the diet category”.

2022 saw another 18% drop in US consumption and another note in the annual report on “headwinds in the overall diet category”.

Glanbia tried to revive interest in SlimFast through a brand refresh. Then-CEO Siobhán Talbot reassured the Irish Farmers Journal at the time that “SlimFast is a great brand”.

By 2023 the brand seemed to be in almost terminal decline. While the company did not break out its sales numbers it did say that the volume decline seen in the wider Performance Nutrition division during the year “was largely driven by SlimFast”.

At the end of 2023, it represented 9% of the division’s revenue, which implies its revenues during the year were approximately $161m (€153m) – less than half of what Glanbia had paid for the company in 2018.

The announcement this week that the brand is finally being off-loaded comes with a writedown of $91.4m (€87m) of intangible assets associated with SlimFast.

While it is clear that getting rid of the underperforming brand is the right decision, questions have to be asked about why it took the company so long to finally offload it.

SlimFast had one good year for Glanbia back in 2019 and despite considerable investment in rebranding and market positioning, has never paid off for the company.