UK Creatine Search Demand Surges: What It Means for Myprotein Owner THG

Manchester leads UK creatine search demand at 343.51 searches per 100,000 residents, the same city that is home to THG plc (LSE: THG), owner of sports nutrition retailer Myprotein.

Manchester leads UK creatine searches

A new analysis of Google search data across 50 of the UK’s largest cities, carried out by Kollo Health, shows Manchester recording the highest per-capita creatine search interest in the country, 2.8 times the 50-city average of 121.72 searches per 100,000 residents.

London generates the largest raw search volume, 22,260 a month, 47.6% of the national total, but ranks seventh once adjusted for its 9.19 million residents. The top 10 cities account for 75.4% of all creatine searches nationally.

Where THG fits in

THG plc trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker THG and is headquartered at Manchester Airport, the same city topping the creatine search rankings. Its nutrition division is built around Myprotein, which the company describes as “the world’s largest online sports nutrition brand.”

In the six months to 30 June 2026, group revenue rose 5.8% to £828.7 million (7.2% on a continuing constant-currency basis), and adjusted EBITDA climbed 78% to £42.8 million from £24.0 million a year earlier. Myprotein sales rose 57% to £58.5 million, up from £37.2 million, while the group’s pretax loss narrowed to £36.3 million from £66.7 million. Chief executive Matthew Moulding credited the completed Myprotein rebrand and expansion into higher-margin categories such as licensing and activewear. THG shares fell 8.5% to 29.00p on the day the results were published.

For full-year 2025, THG reported a 2.3% revenue increase to £1.72 billion and an operating profit of £8.1 million, reversing a prior-year loss, with adjusted EBITDA of £76.6 million (4.5% of revenue).

Myprotein has also expanded into retail: THG signed a licensing agreement with Greencore Group to bring Myprotein-branded protein-enriched food items into Sainsbury’s stores. Frasers Group, led by Mike Ashley, raised its stake in THG to 10.9% in March 2025, worth close to £50 million at the time.

THG’s market capitalisation has stood at a little over £500 million through 2026, with shares mostly trading in the high 20s to low 30s pence range and a 52-week range of roughly 23.82p to 52.55p. Analyst commentary has flagged Myprotein’s pricing on core protein products as a possible driver of further market share gains.

Search demand data does not predict share performance. It is one more data point for investors tracking THG or the wider UK sports nutrition sector.

Women-focused creatine search demand

Women-focused creatine searches account for 18.3% of all queries across the 50 cities studied, with “creatine for women” the second most searched keyword nationally.

Across the 50 cities, 8,580 monthly searches span the three women-focused keywords tracked.

Regional gap: Manchester vs Barnet

Barnet records the lowest per-capita creatine interest of the 50 cities studied, 31.60 searches per 100,000 residents, 10.9 times lower than Manchester’s rate. Of the 50 cities, 29 fall below the 50-city average of 121.72. Bromley (32.59), Wigan (37.09), Rotherham (39.30) and Nottingham (44.75) also sit near the bottom of the table.

Product mix: creatine monohydrate dominates

Of 46,760 total monthly searches recorded across all 50 cities, “creatine monohydrate” accounts for 20,450, 43.7% of the total, the dominant product format searched for and a core SKU across the UK sports nutrition retail market, Myprotein included. “Creatine for women” generates 5,180 monthly searches (11.1%), the second most popular individual keyword, followed by “creatine powder” at 3,430 (7.3%) and “creatine supplements” at 3,250 (7.0%).

The “creatine monohydrate” total here (20,450) differs slightly from a related hydration-focused study using the same keyword set (21,070). Kollo Health attributes variances of this kind to differences in extraction dates, since Google Keyword Planner data is rounded and can shift slightly between pulls.

Methodology

The study analysed search behaviour across 50 of the UK’s most populated cities. Eleven creatine-related keywords were queried using Google Keyword Planner to obtain average monthly search volumes per city: best creatine, best creatine for females, best creatine for women, best recommended creatine, best working creatine, creatine for women, creatine monohydrate, creatine powder, creatine supplements, most recommended creatine, and top ranked creatine.

All keyword volumes were summed per city to create a Raw Creatine Interest Score, then normalised using 2026 population estimates from World Population Review by dividing by city population and multiplying by 100,000, producing a Searches per 100,000 Residents figure. Cities were ranked by this per-capita score.

Women-focused interest was calculated by isolating three keywords: “best creatine for females,” “best creatine for women,” and “creatine for women.” The gender of the searcher cannot be determined from keyword data alone; searches for women-focused terms may be conducted by partners, trainers or others researching on someone else’s behalf.

The 50-city list includes several London boroughs (Barnet, Bromley, Croydon, Bexley, Hounslow, Sutton, Harrow) treated as separate geographic units, in line with how Google Keyword Planner reports location-level data; these are not aggregated into the London total, though some overlap between borough-level and London-wide figures is possible.

This analysis is a single snapshot of average monthly search volumes as reported by Google Keyword Planner at the time of data collection, and does not include historical trend data. Search volumes are rounded estimates and may vary slightly between extraction dates.