Health and beauty brief: The Ordinary donates to Second Harvest, Loblaw on GLP-1 growth
The Ordinary mocks beauty markups
On Friday (May 8), the beauty brand opened The Markup Marché in Toronto, a “supermarket” where everyday goods are sold like skincare products. “[Items] are rebranded with luxury buzzwords and wild price tags to expose the reality behind industry markups,” The Ordinary shared to Instagram.
Products included avocados, or "100% Natural Glow-Enhancing Vitality Orbs," for $419.08 and "All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bars," or bananas, for $134.95, among others.
In addition to Toronto, The Markup Marché is open in Paris, Melbourne, Mexico City, São Paulo and London. The Ordinary has donated more than $100,000 to food bank partners in each city.
In Toronto, all food from the pop-up will be rescued by Second Harvest. The Ordinary has also donated $25,000 to the organization and will match donations up to $10,000.
What a generic Ozempic could mean for Loblaw Companies
In April, Health Canada authorized the first generic version of Ozempic (semaglutide).
On Loblaw's first quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Richard Dufresne said GLP-1
sales growth continues to outperform and “further accelerated in the quarter,” but it’s too early to tell how the generic drug will impact the retailer’s bottom line.
“In Q2, we’ll be able to give you more specific guidance, we'll be able to give you a trajectory of how it's going to get adopted by the market,” Dufresne told analysts May 6. “Having said all that, what's going to happen mathematically is you're going to have an impact on same store sales, but you also have an impact on margin… It's too hard right now to pinpoint it other than to say that we feel good about our gross margin, we feel good about our SG&A rate. Your guess is as good as mine as to what's going to be the impact.”
READ: The food industry has always worried about inflation. It should now worry about appetite
Per Bank, chief executive officer, added: “This is really good for Canadians because they're getting this drug much, much cheaper. It's about $350 depending on the doses today. We don't know yet, but maybe it's going to be a third of the cost.”
Vichy names Vítor Machado Ferreira global brand ambassador
The dermocosmetics brand recently announced its partnership with the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder, known as Vitinha.
Vitinha will headline campaigns for Dercos Anti-Dandruff, Dercos Anti-Hair Loss, and a new line of Vichy Deodorants.
Vichy said the partnership marks a strategic step for the brand as it strengthens its presence in the integrated healthcare space.
"Vitinha embodies a generation focused on health, performance, and longevity. He is both highly talented and authentically relatable, making him a strong partner to highlight the importance of scalp, skin, and hair health,” Jamel Boutiba, global brand president of Vichy Laboratoires, said in a press release.
Have a pitch for Canadian Grocer’s health and beauty brief? Contact digital editor Jillian Morgan at [email protected].
