10.03.23
The legacy company is switching supplement bottles to PCR plastics while undertaking several other initiatives to reduce its environmental impact.
Year Founded: 1968
Website: www.nowfoods.com
Headquarters: Bloomingdale, IL
Other Locations: Sparks, NV; Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Number of Employees: 1,400+
Key Personnel:
• Jim Emme, CEO
• Andy Kotlarz, CFO
• Dan Richard, VP Global Sales & Marketing
• Katarzyna Banaszewski, Senior Director of Quality
Revenue: Total NOW Health Group sales are expected to reach over $800 million in 2023, including the company’s Canadian division, Puresource, and its retail division, Fruitful Yield.
Company Description/Mission: Founded in 1968 by Elwood Richard, NOW has grown from a small family operation into one of the most respected manufacturers in the natural products industry. Still owned by the Richard family today, NOW manufactures 1,500 natural products including dietary supplements, sports nutrition products, essential oils, personal care and beauty products, organic foods and sweeteners, and pet supplements. Committed to offering safe, affordable, high-quality products, NOW remains focused on its original mission: to provide value in products and services that empower people to lead healthier lives.
“Fifty five years has been quite the journey for NOW,” Dan Richard, vice president of global sales and marketing told Nutraceuticals World. “We are living the business dream far beyond what any of our family members or long-term employees thought possible. We consider our business blessed in so many ways, over such a long period of time. From having only 12 employees in 1985 to about 1,500 today, it’s hard to imagine such changes that have happened. “
Looking to continue future growth, NOW has its sights on international markets. “We also plan to remain family-owned and privately owned long-term,” said Richard, “and have a number of family members working at NOW today in various roles.”
While COVID-19 was the main influence on business in 2021, with demand for health products high, alongside supply chain problems, 2022 presented the world with economic challenges, including the ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ukraine had become our number one international market in 2021,” said Richard. With disruption from the war, the company scaled plans back.
Sales have rebounded in 2023, and the company has added more than 150 new production positions in order to meet higher demand, Richard noted.
“It appears that 2023 will be a record year for NOW and we are pacing to set records for production output as well. Currently, NOW sells at least three units of product every second, 24/7, 365 days per year.”
With high demand for immune health products like vitamins C and D, quercetin, and NAC, Richard said NOW faced “a lot of difficulty” keeping up with supply in 2021, “in part due to our very strict quality standards and testing. We do not change vendors easily and have a long process in making any changes. NOW’s fill rate in 2021 was at an all-time low and it took over a year to be corrected.”
Still, the company’s broad product portfolio means rarely does any individual product account for more than 3% of the NOW brand.
“NOW started testing CoQ10 brands sold on Amazon in 2017 when we found a number of 600 mg potencies of CoQ10 in dry capsule form on Amazon,” said Richard.
“We know this is nearly impossible because CoQ10 powder is very sticky and high volume encapsulating machines cannot work with this potency. So we started testing and found massive problems with potency shortages. After several rounds of testing, it was pretty obvious that either some brands had no quality control at all, or they were intentionally cheating with bogus ingredients.”
Richard said the company first reported its findings to Amazon directly, but did not get feedback or action for the first three years of testing.
Even still, Amazon hasn’t communicated much to NOW regarding testing results, Richard said. “We have tried various ways to communicate, but Amazon has not been transparent with their process or internal discussions or actions. This has certainly been frustrating since cheating brands have continued five years later to be recommended by Amazon and ‘Sponsored’ with prime positions.”
Amazon is a significant customer for NOW and the company is a large natural products brand on the platform.
“It’s enraging that these criminals are trying to cash in on trust in the NOW brand, earned over decades, to defraud consumers,” said Richard. “We remain on high alert regarding this problem and have contacted the FDA Health Fraud Brand division as well as Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit,” Richard said. “Additional legal steps are being taken in order to find the source of the problem and put it out of business. However, we fear that these fraudulent products may reappear on Amazon by a different seller name, or on another platform or in other international markets.”
“This has been a difficult process and took about two full years of quality control work to make sure PCR bottles did not leach any toxins,” said Richard. “We have implemented the switch in the majority of our supplement products already, and are still working to change over our personal care and sports products to also be 100% PCR. This is expected by Q1 2024.”
NOW has a team working to measure the company’s environmental impact and to develop ways it can improve further, he added.
“NOW also is very active with waste reduction, water conservation, sustainable ingredient sourcing, recycling, and other environmentally-friendly business practices,” Richard said.
NOW recently opened a new manufacturing facility, located next door to its flagship plant in Bloomingdale, IL. The 90,000 square foot building doubles the capacity of the flagship plant.
The new facility is the second to achieve LEED Silver certification; its Sparks, NV plant was certified in 2012.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that is used internationally. Its criteria involves extensive documentation on water and energy use, lighting, air quality, recycling, sustainable sourcing of materials, and incorporating LEED-certified equipment and training.
All of NOW’s facilities have been updated in order to improve environmental impact, through projects such as installing energy-efficient lighting, solar panels, water conservation measures, and electric car charging stations, the company reported.
NOW participates in the TerraCycle program that keeps non-recyclable packaging out of landfills, Richard noted. The company is an active donor to about 30 charities and is beginning a new program in which it donates one box of tea bags to a local food pantry for every two boxes sold to retailers.
The company is also donating funds to plant 55,000 trees this year through the One Tree Planted initiative to help restore ecosystems.
In an effort to promote transparency further, NOW said it is making its Certificates of Analysis (CofA) accessible for its entire line of 100% pure essential oils, which includes more than 90 products. The CofAs will be available to view on the NOW website.
Each CofA, searchable by product lot number, shows the results of quality testing that each essential oil has undergone, confirming that it adheres to its product specifications and NOW standards. Essential oils are the initial product category in NOW’s latest efforts to continue raising the bar on transparency. Work is underway to expand the public CofA program to include other categories.
As a family-owned business, Richard said that NOW pays particular attention to employee welfare and typically wins multiple “Best Employer” awards locally and nationally each year.
“This doesn’t happen without a lot of intent and effort,” said Richard. “We aim to have all employees work in a safe and healthy environment, who want to work at NOW and enjoy being part of our mission. NOW has a vast workforce from many cultures and we try to improve people’s health through our products.”
Reflecting on the company’s legacy, Richard said, “I know my father would be pleased that we have continued his commitment to doing what’s right for the environment and our customers, and are constantly raising the bar,” said Richard.
Year Founded: 1968
Website: www.nowfoods.com
Headquarters: Bloomingdale, IL
Other Locations: Sparks, NV; Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Number of Employees: 1,400+
Key Personnel:
• Jim Emme, CEO
• Andy Kotlarz, CFO
• Dan Richard, VP Global Sales & Marketing
• Katarzyna Banaszewski, Senior Director of Quality
Revenue: Total NOW Health Group sales are expected to reach over $800 million in 2023, including the company’s Canadian division, Puresource, and its retail division, Fruitful Yield.
Company Description/Mission: Founded in 1968 by Elwood Richard, NOW has grown from a small family operation into one of the most respected manufacturers in the natural products industry. Still owned by the Richard family today, NOW manufactures 1,500 natural products including dietary supplements, sports nutrition products, essential oils, personal care and beauty products, organic foods and sweeteners, and pet supplements. Committed to offering safe, affordable, high-quality products, NOW remains focused on its original mission: to provide value in products and services that empower people to lead healthier lives.
“Fifty five years has been quite the journey for NOW,” Dan Richard, vice president of global sales and marketing told Nutraceuticals World. “We are living the business dream far beyond what any of our family members or long-term employees thought possible. We consider our business blessed in so many ways, over such a long period of time. From having only 12 employees in 1985 to about 1,500 today, it’s hard to imagine such changes that have happened. “
Looking to continue future growth, NOW has its sights on international markets. “We also plan to remain family-owned and privately owned long-term,” said Richard, “and have a number of family members working at NOW today in various roles.”
While COVID-19 was the main influence on business in 2021, with demand for health products high, alongside supply chain problems, 2022 presented the world with economic challenges, including the ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ukraine had become our number one international market in 2021,” said Richard. With disruption from the war, the company scaled plans back.
Sales have rebounded in 2023, and the company has added more than 150 new production positions in order to meet higher demand, Richard noted.
“It appears that 2023 will be a record year for NOW and we are pacing to set records for production output as well. Currently, NOW sells at least three units of product every second, 24/7, 365 days per year.”
With high demand for immune health products like vitamins C and D, quercetin, and NAC, Richard said NOW faced “a lot of difficulty” keeping up with supply in 2021, “in part due to our very strict quality standards and testing. We do not change vendors easily and have a long process in making any changes. NOW’s fill rate in 2021 was at an all-time low and it took over a year to be corrected.”
Still, the company’s broad product portfolio means rarely does any individual product account for more than 3% of the NOW brand.
Quality and Testing Programs
NOW has been conducting a series of tests on products found on Amazon’s platform since 2017, finding all sorts of quality and labeling problems. This year the company expanded the program to include products from Walmart’s e-commerce platform.“NOW started testing CoQ10 brands sold on Amazon in 2017 when we found a number of 600 mg potencies of CoQ10 in dry capsule form on Amazon,” said Richard.
“We know this is nearly impossible because CoQ10 powder is very sticky and high volume encapsulating machines cannot work with this potency. So we started testing and found massive problems with potency shortages. After several rounds of testing, it was pretty obvious that either some brands had no quality control at all, or they were intentionally cheating with bogus ingredients.”
Richard said the company first reported its findings to Amazon directly, but did not get feedback or action for the first three years of testing.
Even still, Amazon hasn’t communicated much to NOW regarding testing results, Richard said. “We have tried various ways to communicate, but Amazon has not been transparent with their process or internal discussions or actions. This has certainly been frustrating since cheating brands have continued five years later to be recommended by Amazon and ‘Sponsored’ with prime positions.”
Amazon is a significant customer for NOW and the company is a large natural products brand on the platform.
Imitation and Fraud
In April of 2023 NOW reported that fraudulent products being sold on Amazon were imitating its brand, as well as another prominent supplement brand.“It’s enraging that these criminals are trying to cash in on trust in the NOW brand, earned over decades, to defraud consumers,” said Richard. “We remain on high alert regarding this problem and have contacted the FDA Health Fraud Brand division as well as Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit,” Richard said. “Additional legal steps are being taken in order to find the source of the problem and put it out of business. However, we fear that these fraudulent products may reappear on Amazon by a different seller name, or on another platform or in other international markets.”
Environmental Initiatives and Impact
This year NOW announced it has begun transitioning supplement bottles to be made from 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin.“This has been a difficult process and took about two full years of quality control work to make sure PCR bottles did not leach any toxins,” said Richard. “We have implemented the switch in the majority of our supplement products already, and are still working to change over our personal care and sports products to also be 100% PCR. This is expected by Q1 2024.”
NOW has a team working to measure the company’s environmental impact and to develop ways it can improve further, he added.
“NOW also is very active with waste reduction, water conservation, sustainable ingredient sourcing, recycling, and other environmentally-friendly business practices,” Richard said.
NOW recently opened a new manufacturing facility, located next door to its flagship plant in Bloomingdale, IL. The 90,000 square foot building doubles the capacity of the flagship plant.
The new facility is the second to achieve LEED Silver certification; its Sparks, NV plant was certified in 2012.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that is used internationally. Its criteria involves extensive documentation on water and energy use, lighting, air quality, recycling, sustainable sourcing of materials, and incorporating LEED-certified equipment and training.
All of NOW’s facilities have been updated in order to improve environmental impact, through projects such as installing energy-efficient lighting, solar panels, water conservation measures, and electric car charging stations, the company reported.
NOW participates in the TerraCycle program that keeps non-recyclable packaging out of landfills, Richard noted. The company is an active donor to about 30 charities and is beginning a new program in which it donates one box of tea bags to a local food pantry for every two boxes sold to retailers.
The company is also donating funds to plant 55,000 trees this year through the One Tree Planted initiative to help restore ecosystems.
In an effort to promote transparency further, NOW said it is making its Certificates of Analysis (CofA) accessible for its entire line of 100% pure essential oils, which includes more than 90 products. The CofAs will be available to view on the NOW website.
Each CofA, searchable by product lot number, shows the results of quality testing that each essential oil has undergone, confirming that it adheres to its product specifications and NOW standards. Essential oils are the initial product category in NOW’s latest efforts to continue raising the bar on transparency. Work is underway to expand the public CofA program to include other categories.
As a family-owned business, Richard said that NOW pays particular attention to employee welfare and typically wins multiple “Best Employer” awards locally and nationally each year.
“This doesn’t happen without a lot of intent and effort,” said Richard. “We aim to have all employees work in a safe and healthy environment, who want to work at NOW and enjoy being part of our mission. NOW has a vast workforce from many cultures and we try to improve people’s health through our products.”
Reflecting on the company’s legacy, Richard said, “I know my father would be pleased that we have continued his commitment to doing what’s right for the environment and our customers, and are constantly raising the bar,” said Richard.
