Appetite for disruption: What GLP-1 means for consumer markets

Who your GLP-1 customers are, and how your category changes, will dictate how you compete

GLP-1 is reshaping the relationship consumers have with their bodies, what they choose to put in their basket and how businesses can best serve the end-to-end GLP-1 customer journey.

GLP-1 usage is set to move beyond the 9% of UK early adopters who are currently using it or have used it in the past, with an additional 18% of UK adults saying they would consider it. The profile of current users represents a mix of genders, ages and income, suggesting GLP-1s are going mainstream.

GLP-1 is not just changing our bodies, it is changing our shopping baskets and impacting how businesses serve consumers. GLP-1 is acting as both a spending catalyst and a spending multiplier, creating new consumer preferences and accelerating the adoption of others. Users are spending less in appetite-led categories such as indulgence within grocery, alcohol and eating out, and more in categories that support nutrition, fitness and confidence, many of these behaviours persist beyond treatment.

The wider GLP-1 ecosystem is now influencing the shape and profitability of the consumer economy. Who your GLP-1 customers are, and how your category changes, will dictate how you compete. Leading businesses will do three things at once: reshape their portfolios to manage near-term risk, innovate to capture changing preferences, and collaborate across the wider GLP-1 ecosystem to claim a bigger share of the profit.

Is the shift in your category temporary, or permanent? Most businesses don't yet know.
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GLP-1: Changing Britain’s bodies, baskets and businesses

The impact of GLP-1 reaches far beyond treatment itself. It is reshaping who consumers are, how they spend, and how businesses will need to respond.

GLP-1 Consumption changes

To understand the real impact, we mapped every category against two questions: how consumption changes during treatment, and what happens after it stops. That reveals four very different outcomes, from categories under sustained pressure, to those whose decline is only temporary, to those set for sustained growth.

One finding stands out. Over 80% of past users maintain at least some of their dietary changes after stopping. The demand shift outlasts the prescription, which means category economics are being reset rather than dented.

Knowing where your category sits on this map will be critical to how you plan, innovate and compete. Our full report explores this across six categories.