Why gummy supplements are growing in Europe

Gummy supplements have shifted from a children's-only niche into a mainstream adult format across Europe. The dynamics behind that shift sit on three tracks — format preference, retailer-side organisation and DTC channel economics — and each one has implications for how brands plan their gummy SKUs.

Format preference Format preference is consumer-driven, not brand-driven. Adult consumers increasingly choose chewable formats over tablets and capsules for the "daily-routine" use case. Brands launching wellness or beauty ranges treat at least one gummy SKU as part of the lineup, not a separate experiment.

Retailer-side organisation Retail buyers are organising the supplement shelf around use cases (immune, beauty, sleep) rather than format. A range that ships only capsules now reads as one-format inside a multi-format category — a competitive risk worth a brief.

DTC route economics DTC supplement brands are increasingly led by gummy heroes: format meets ritual, ritual meets retention. The capsule companions still sit alongside, but the marketing-led SKU is more often the gummy.

This is not a quantitative claim about how much each track contributes. The takeaway is qualitative: brands building an EU range in 2026 should plan a gummy hero SKU and a companion architecture, not the reverse.