Sales hit $800 million in 2006.

Tampa, FL (PRWeb) January 9, 2007 — Marketdata Enterprises, Inc. (www.mkt-data-ent.com), a leading independent market research publisher, has released a groundbreaking new 98-page market study entitled: Diet Food Home Delivery Services: A Market Analysis. This is the ONLY publicly available national market study about this $800 million business.

“The diet food home delivery or “home meal replacement” market in the U.S. is a niche segment of the overall weight loss market, appealing to the most affluent dieters. It has grown rapidly and attracted new competitors. NutriSystem and its heavy advertising, coupled with demand from convenience seeking, time-pressed moms, executives, working couples, the elderly and others, have fueled this growth. Several dozen companies compete, and the number is growing.”, according to Marketdata’s Research Director, John LaRosa.

Major Findings:

1) To start a diet food home delivery business from scratch, requires an investment of as much as $5-6 million for one doing nationwide shipping, versus $500,000 to $1.5 million for services providing local daily delivery to one metro area.

2) Customers… Most of the diet food home delivery services’ clients skew higher female than male­60%-70% female. NutriSystem defines its core customer as a 44-year-old woman weighing 210 lbs. and who wants to lose about 60 lbs. Most clients stay on a diet delivery plan 8-12 weeks and it’s common to return once or twice during the year.

3) Currently, there are only several dozen companies offering this service. This is up, however, from a handful of services in 2001 and about a dozen in mid-2003.

4) Market Size… Marketdata estimates the market to be valued at $800 million as of 2006. An estimate of growth in 2007 and beyond depends in large part on how rapidly NutriSystem continues to grow, since its sales represented 70% of the market value in 2006. Marketdata estimates that the diet food delivery market will be worth $1.068 billion in 2007. This represents a 33.5% gain over 2006.

5) The Price… Costs for these services range from $10-40 per day, or $70-280 per week, or $300-1,500 per month. Marketdata found two price tiers, the lower end of about $280 per month versus the high end at an average of about $750. The average price for 21 companies is $726 per month.

6) Competition… The larger services such as 22-year old Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating have 200+ distributors and are franchised in multiple states. We think that another 10 small companies will be formed by 2008, with average sales of $5 million apiece. We expect Jenny Direct and Medifast revenues to grow 30-50% each, NutriSystem – 27%, and the 23 other diet food delivery firms growing 20% each.

7) Many companies in this market focus solely on serving either or both New York City or Los Angeles. In fact, at least 8 of the companies do so. The other “hot spot” seems to be Texas. In Canada, it’s Toronto.

“Interest in diet food home delivery rose to its highest point in Marketdata’s BestDietForMe.com online survey­7.3% of dieters by the 1st quarter of 2006.”, according to John LaRosa.

“Diet food home delivery eliminates some traditional obstacles that diet centers have faced–no driving to weekly meetings, seeing a counselor, or to pick up your food. Apparently, that’s a service that’s in high demand.”, according to Marketdata’s John LaRosa.

21 Competitor Profiles are provided for: NutriSystem, Jenny Direct, Medifast, Diet To Go, Diet To Your Door, Atkins At Home, eDiets Express, Zone Chefs, Sunfare, Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating, and many more.