Yesterday I received an email from NPN Editor Rosie Greenaway to tell me that Diversified are no longer publishing the magazine with immediate effect.
This is very sad news for Rosie and the rest of the team, but also for me as a sometime contributor and regular reader. NPN always championed the natural foods industry but was not afraid to venture into contentious areas. The magazine was started by crusading editor Robin Bines who passed the baton to Jim Manson before most recently Rosie took over. All three have done a great job.
Print magazines have had a tough time recently with many B2B publications ceasing publication or appearing only online. What does the end of NPN say about the state of the UK natural foods industry ? Rosie’s email arrived as I was sat outside a café waiting for Cliff Moss from HSM. As we discussed the implications it occurred to me that once again we are the victims of our own success. The innovations introduced by natural food stores during my time in the industry – organic, Fairtrade, Free From, vegan, plant-based, gut health – are now mainstream and available at lower prices in major retailers.
Health is now a major driver of mainstream food retailing with every supermarket having at least one sub-brand dedicated to healthy eating. January 2024 will see a significant intensification of the war between UK supermarkets for the health-conscious consumer. Mainstream newspapers constantly feature food and health with the human biome rarely out of the news this year. A change of government could well see the sugar levy on soft drink being extended to other categories, resulting in an explosion of product development as manufacturers seek to avoid the tax.
And meanwhile the natural foods sector continues to suffer from high energy costs, key raw material prices that refuse to deflate and a lack of skilled labour. The unnecessary bureaucracy caused by Brexit has seen a significant reduction in UK organic exports and at least one major company failure. Seeing Holland & Barrett return to being a food retailer with a thoughtful range of 500 own-label products is good news, but I wonder if they have left it too late. And it is great to have Renee Elliot and Al Overton back at Planet Organic but they have a tough task on their hands.
The loss of NPN says something about the future shape and size of the natural foods industry. The sector will persist, adapting to customer needs as it always has. There is a bit of me that feels nostalgic for the natural foods community where I started my career – where the major players were brands like Whole Earth, Green & Black’s, Clipper, Meridian, and Clearspring. All these brands still exist today, but with the exception of Clearspring they are under very different ownership. “Don’t look back, you can never look back” wrote Don Henley but the loss of NPN has lead me to do just that, and I am sorry for what has been lost.
All best wishes for the future to Rosie, Carsten, Carol and everyone at Diversified.