They’re the brands loved by ‘wellness influencers’ that promise to make you healthier, fitter and even younger (looking)… But what you didn’t know is how many are actually Irish-owned making their founders MILLIONS

So, it seems we have come a long way from the cod–liver–oil tablets of our childhood in Ireland folks. 

These days, there seems to be a sauna on every corner, protein in practically everything we eat and a powder, potion or probiotic promising to sort out everything from our sleep and stress to our guts, hormones and ageing skin – and it’s all homegrown.

Forget hemp–loving hippies and dusty health–food shops, there’s boundless wealth to be found in Irish wellness – from global investments, multi–million euro profits and corporate giants lining up to buy the brands promising to make us healthier, fitter and younger for longer. 

You could say it pays to help people become their best selves – just ask Gary Lavin.

Last week Gary, the former Leinster and Harlequins rugby player and son of glamorous Kerry businesswoman Jackie Lavin, sold VitHit, the drinks business he founded 25 years ago, to Nichols, the British company behind Vimto, for €75million.

Lavin, who owned more than 70 per cent of the company, is expected to pocket approximately €50million – not bad for an idea born after a knee injury brought his promising rugby career to an abrupt end.

Lavin initially went into business importing health supplements before developing a low–calorie drink combining water, fruit juice, tea extracts and vitamins (the health angle may sound obvious now, but it wasn’t back then). 

The business struggled, came perilously close to going under and was hit hard by the 2008 recession.

He persisted and VitHit now generates more than €26million in annual revenue across 15 markets. 

The spectacular sale is perhaps the most evident yet of just how lucrative our appetite for wellness has become but Lavin is far from alone.

The global food supplements market was worth close to $193billion last year and is projected to exceed $414billion by 2033. 

And Ireland is taking a bite, with our supplement companies, protein fortunes, booming gyms, a surge in saunas, an insatiable appetite for athleisure and a seaweed swell. 

Here’s a lowdown of some Irish brands that are in remarkably rude health.

SUPPLEMENT MILLIONAIRES 

Long before wellness became an Instagram hashtag, Sona Nutrition was already selling it.

The family business was established more than 40 years ago by Ohan Yergainharsian and today has around 140 products and exports internationally.

And the old hand is doing rather well in the new wellness world: Sona made a profit of around €3.7million in 2023.

And if Sona paved the wellness way, Revive Active, founded in Galway in 2011 by the late Dáithí O’Connor, has chartered completely new territory. 

The company was born from Daithi’s belief that pharmacy and supermarket shelves were awash with low–dose multivitamin tablets and that there was room to power up with powdered supplements, which he did – and then some.

Today, Revive Active sells around 16 million sachets a year, employs almost 100 people across Galway and Mullingar and recorded pre–tax profits of €3.2million in 2023. A month’s supply of its flagship product costs around €60.

Helping spread the Revive message is brand ambassador Pippa O’Connor – herself no stranger to turning lifestyle into a lucrative business through her own POCO brand. 

Just this week it was revealed that her beauty and skincare firm recorded weekly revenues of just under €150,000 – the brand’s pre–tax profit tripling to €1.17million for the year to October 2025.

And microbiologist Barry Kiely clearly had good gut instinct when he spotted an opportunity in probiotics and founded Cork–based PrecisionBiotics almost 25 years ago.

Now ultimately owned by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, the company recorded revenues of almost €24.5million and a very healthy €15.8million in pre–tax profit in 2023.

HORMONE GOLD RUSH 

One of the liveliest areas of the boom is women’s health, with products aimed at everything from PMS and menopause to hormones and intimate health.

Pharmacist Laura Dowling initially made her name on social media talking frankly and frequently about vulvas and vaginas. 

Now the Fabulous Pharmacist has gone from viral sensation into healthcare entrepreneur. Her Fab–U supplement range covers everything from Peri for perimenopause and Meno for menopause to products aimed at men’s midlife health.

Her company Peacetree recorded profits of more than €886,000 in 2023.

Proof, perhaps, that it pays to talk about the V–word.

Dublin–based Sisterly was founded by three friends with rather different CVs – a banker, a barrister and a luxury–brand developer – who saw an opportunity in women’s nutrition.

Investors saw it too. The business raised €2million from Enterprise Ireland and private investors to fund its expansion into Britain and further afield. Its Elevator nutritional supplement costs €79 a month on an ongoing subscription.

Also making waves is Gigi, a brand borne thanks to nutritionists Lisa Hughes and Jennie Haire. 

The set up in 2023, launching with a PMS and hormone– balance blend which is now stocked in Boots. The company has been raising €1million to fund its move into Britain.

At the more rarefied end of the market sits the new obsession with longevity.

Irish company ID Formulas, founded by consultant dermatologists Dr Caitríona Ryan and Dr Niki Ralph alongside healthcare entrepreneur Conor Murphy, is aimed squarely at people prepared to invest serious money in ageing well.

The doctors and Mr Murphy are investing around €1.5million in the business, while its premium supplement programmes can cost in the region of €250 a month.

The company says its formulations are designed to reverse biological ageing – but at €250 a month, the pursuit certainly doesn’t come cheap.

PROTEIN POWER 

If there is one nutrient packing a profitable punch, it is protein. Once the preserve of bodybuilders and enormous tubs of powder, it has now found its way into yoghurts, puddings, drinks, bars and seemingly every second supermarket shelf as protein maxxing has taken over.

But back in 2016, Irish entrepreneur Barry Connolly spotted protein potential early. Connolly already had an impressive record for identifying things people might want: his Richmond Marketing business brought Red Bull to Ireland and also handled Heelys (those children’s trainers with wheels in the heels). 

He co– founded Fulfil protein bars with the idea of creating a snack with nutrition in mind and the hunch paid off. 

Ferrero bought Fulfil in 2022 in a deal reportedly worth around €160million and then, in 2025, Hershey bought Connolly out of the North American operation, giving him another payday estimated at more than €80million.

On an even bigger scale again is Kilkenny nutrition behemoth Glanbia and its Optimum Nutrition brand, whose Gold Standard Whey is marketed as the world’s best–selling whey protein.

Glanbia reported group sales of €1.82billion in the first half of this year, with Optimum Nutrition delivering like–for–like revenue growth of 25.2 per cent – a size–able chunk indeed.

Fit Foods, meanwhile, has taken protein firmly into the family fridge, expanding its ready–meal range into high–protein puddings and gut–friendly yoghurts. 

The business grew out of the O’Leary family’s Dublin Meat Company, which dates back to 1946 and now the company targets revenues of at least €60million, distributing over 120,000 meals weekly.

SEED CAPITAL (LITERALLY)

Sligo’s Good4U began when entrepreneur Bernie Butler became interested in sprouted seeds. 

She and husband Paul already knew a thing or two about building businesses, having previously created Platter Foods before selling it to Kerry Group.

Good4U grew from sprouts into a range encompassing seeds, healthy snacks and protein balls and, rather pleasingly, subsequently raised actual seed investment to help grow the business. 

Their estimated yearly revenue? €15million – talk about reaping what you sow, and plenty more besides.

PAYING TO SWEAT

Ireland’s gym industry is also in good financial shape, with chain FlyeFit recording €30million in membership revenue and a €4.5million bottom line in its latest reported accounts.

It seems we enjoy a high–end workout too, with luxe leisure club Westwood reporting a 15 per cent increase in membership since the pandemic worth up to €27.8million last year.

And Ireland now has a flourishing culture of sea dips, cold plunges and communal saunas. 

The company behind The Hot Box Sauna made post–tax profits of €928,306 in the 12 months to August 2025 – almost three times the previous year’s €332,931. Accumulated profits reached €1.39million. 

Founders Dan O’Connor, Liam Irwin and Luke Williams started the business with a self–built mobile sauna in 2021. Four years later, the company employs 35 people.

WELLNESS WEAR

It pays to look the part when it comes to self care too. The wellness industry is driven by aesthetic appeal. 

And there’s millions to be made as influencer and entrepreneur Rosie Connolly and husband Paul Quinn know only too well. 

They started athleisure brand 4th Arq from the garage of their rented house during the pandemic, when Mr Quinn’s work as a refrigeration engineer temporarily ground to a halt.

The company now has 24 staff and sells an average of 650 of its signature half–zip fleeces every day. 

Haremi Ltd, the company behind the brand, reported €4.16million profit for its 2024 financial year and 4th Arq has secured partnerships with Next in Britain and Nordstrom in America.

Gym+Coffee has had a bumpier ride. Founded in 2017 by Niall Horgan, Diarmuid McSweeney and Karl Swaine, the Irish athleisure company expanded rapidly before losses mounted.

But their tale of hardship has a silver lining – it returned to profit in 2025, with pre–tax profits of €749,468 and revenues rising 27 per cent to €18.69million.

It has also had some suitably glamorous backing, with Niall Horan investing in the company and Brian O’Driscoll closely associated with the brand.

SEAWEED SUCCESS 

Then there is perhaps Ireland’s most homegrown wellness ingredient of all – seaweed. Yes, the slippery stuff we spent childhood holidays trying not to step on has become a luxury commodity.

Husband–and–wife team Mark and Kira Walton left corporate careers in Dublin for Sligo and joined Mark’s family seaweed– bathing business. 

When they realised customers wanted to recreate the experience at home, they spotted an opportunity and launched VOYA in 2006.

Today the Strandhill company supplies products in more than 56 countries, including luxury hotels spas, and lounges around the world, and employs around 50 people. 

Not bad for seaweed from Sligo. And if VOYA has made it luxurious, Tralee cellular biochemist Helena McMahon has taken it into the laboratory.

Ms McMahon co–founded Seabody after NutraMara, her marine biotechnology company, developed functional marine ingredients from seaweed for use in skincare and wellness products.

The global seaweed market has tripled over the past two decades and is forecast to be worth €22billion by 2028.

Who knew there was so much money lurking between the rocks?