Behind The Label: Supply Chain and the Business of Supplements

Brand Independence and Debt-Free Philosophy 0:00

Well, the industry is full of brands now that are backed by venture capital because there's a lot of money in this industry. And if you see a lotta brands with major advertising budgets, you can pretty much assure they either are someone who is independently wealthy, which unfortunately I am not, or has some financial backing, Which is very, very common. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a different way of doing business. and it's the way that I've chosen not to do it. From everything I've seen, it can create some potholes in the road from a consumer standpoint, maybe more so than from the company standpoint because it boils down to then the price, the sales volume, and the margin, all of that being the most important thing.

These are directions that I don't want to go in. I never want the margins to be what dictates whether or not I come out with a product. I don't ever want the pressure of somebody else telling me, hey, you got to make a project cheaper because we've got make more money or you've gotta charge a higher price because you gotta make money. And really try hard to just make the brand as accessible as possible while also giving you something unique and potent and effective and that's what I do. Welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you make sense of natural supplements and thrive without pharma drugs.

I'm Jared St. Clair. I grew up in a health food store and spent over 40 years now figuring out what works and what doesn't, so that you can make confident, informed decisions about nutrition, supplements and your health. Welcome to Vitality Radio. I'm Jared St. Clair, and this is going to be a quickie today. certainly impacting me. And also, what's going on with Vitality Nutrition and our brand? I recently did an episode about the new Ultimate Vitalite Multi. If you didn't hear that, it's certainly worth going back and checking out.

But this is more broad across our entire brand for you who are fans of the brand. I think you'll really appreciate it. At the very end of this show, I've got a very unique deal for if you're listening. In the first 10 days, of the show dropping, so check the date when this show dropped on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you're listening, and you are going to be in for a really good value if you stick through to the end of this Show. It is going be a little bit different because this is the Show about business, the business of supplements, but I think, again, it's an important one and I want to give you a bit more insight into Vitality Nutrition as we're in the month of our 49th birthday.

We'll be celebrating that the end of this month, August of 2026. Can't believe that one year from now, we will be 50 years old. Kind of crazy. So I just wanted to first let you know that we don't take money from outside sources. We have no venture capital, no outside investors, No private equity sitting in the background telling us what to do or how to run our company. And we Don't run this business on debt. It's not a principle that I picked up in a business book. In fact, most business books tell you to leverage debt and It's been tempting sometimes, but I learned this from a debt that I had to pay off a long time ago.

When I was a young man, I actually owned two businesses. I owned this business, which I recently purchased from my parents just about three or four years prior. And then this was running pretty smoothly. It was much more simple business back then. There was no podcast. That didn't do any kind of nutritional consulting. Didn't have my own brand. No wholesale business. Just a store. independent health food stores around the country and it was doing fine. And so my best friend and I decided to buy another business.

We had, you know, big eyes on, what we could potentially do financially. and we got snookered pretty bad. we lost a lot of money and most of it, was not money that we had to lose. It ended up in second mortgages and credit cards and things like that. And it took me over 20 years to pay that back in its entirety. I didn't file for bankruptcy. A lot of people told me I should have. And we decided to just pay it off the hard way, and we did. With that, I have been firmly on the side of, hey, let's not go into debt anymore.

So we don't do that either here. That experience wired me pretty permanently to be very much more independent, not reliant on other people for the financial assistance that I may need. Now, I have leaned a little bit used to on my mother and father from time to time, actually taking some loans from them, which I then, you know, paid back even with interest to try to get actually a couple of my first products launched and a few other things like that. But as it is now, this business runs completely organically, which I think is the appropriate way maybe to run a natural products business organics.

So why does this independence actually matter? Why am I blabbing about it? Well, the industry is full of brands now that are backed by venture capital, because there's a lot of money in this industry. And if you see a lotta brands with major advertising budgets, you can pretty much assure they either are someone who is independently wealthy, Which unfortunately I am not, or has some financial backing, which is very, very common. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a different way of doing business.

And it's a way that I've chosen not to do it. From everything I have seen, it can create some potholes in the road from a consumer standpoint, maybe more so than from the company standpoint because it boils down to then the price, the sales volume, The margin, all of that being the most important thing. And these are directions that I don't want to go in. I never want the margin to be what dictates whether or not I come out with a product.

Welcome to Vitality Radio 5:55

The pressure of somebody else telling me, hey, you got to make a project cheaper because we've got make more money or you've gotta charge a higher price because you gotta make money. Really try hard to just make the brand as accessible as possible while also giving you something unique and potent and effective, and that's what I do. And I talked a lot about that actually in the Ultimate Vitality Multishow, if you didn't already hear that. So ultimately it boils down to this. I answer to you, that it, That's the entire list.

Now, staying independent comes with a real cost. and I want you to understand what that is. The average manufacturer in this industry does not really want to work with the company my size. These are called contract manufacturers. the way it works, I don't make my own products. I don't have a facility where I have an encapsulation machine and a blender and clean room and all that kind of stuff. That's a multi-million dollar enterprise that I want to invest in and have not. Most brands in this industry outsource their manufacturing side to what are called contract manufacturers.

And that's a normal way to do it. It's fine as long as you trust your contract manufacturer. They have the right certifications and all that kind of stuff. But generally speaking, the cost involved in manufacturing has a lot to with volume. You know, turning on the machine, filling it up with a powder, blending it first, and then encapsulating it, then bottling it... All of that is more expensive the smaller the run is. If you're making a thousand bottles, it's alot more expense on a per bottle basis.

Why the Business Is Staying Independent 7:24

primarily because of the cleaning of machines afterwards, cleaning and sterilizing the machines afterward, than it is to do 5,000 bottles or 10,00 bottles. There are certain types of pills you can't even make in less than like a million at a time, such as soft gel capsules for the most part are made a billion at time. That's way out of reach of someone like myself. And so we have to it a little differently than most companies do it and with smaller manufacturers that are frankly, a little hungrier for business like mine.

Now that works for me for one reason, and that is I have a unique history and relationship in this industry. I know people who know, people, who in many cases have been able to get favors for. Me, I had brought business kind of brokered things for other companies to manufacturers that have allowed me to. Better deals on smaller run sizes and things like that. And that's worked pretty well. With challenges forever, ever since I started making my own formulas about almost 20 years ago now, but recently there has been a major struggle over the last, basically throughout 2025 and 26 has pretty rocky.

Our primary manufacturer has struggled this year significantly with consistency, follow through communication and reliability. I don't know what's going on over there, to be honest with you. I can tell you, I'm confident that the product coming from there has been quality because we have all the verifications, we had all of the testing, We have the results. People love the products. We've seen no drop off in effectiveness or anything like that. So I am not worried about that, what is happening is where a product has typically been promised in 8 to 12 weeks.

We've had to wait as long as 26 weeks, a half a year for some formulas and many formulas have been in the 18 to 20 week range, which is just absurdly too long. And that creates a massive backflow of problems for a brand like mine, especially because I don't have a bunch of cash in bank that allows me to stock deeper so that if there is a 12 week delay or whatever it is, or even a 15 or 18 week delay, I've got plenty of stock. I can't do that. It doesn't work at my size. So let me tell you exactly where we stand right now.

We're currently out of get well, stay well. Well, we just got the multi back in, which you know, that was a whole different animal having to do with issues with customs. we are out. Of our largest size of back on track to my third most popular product because well it's that that big size is a huge seller for us and it's been delayed and delayed. In fact, that one I pulled from my current manufacturer, I had to send it to a completely new manufacturer. But we should have that finally in the next couple of weeks.

And the good news is, well, those of you who have wanted the large size, and I understand it, it is better value and you love the product, which I appreciate, you've at least been able to get back on track in a smaller size and not had run out of it. And there are a few more products on the horizon that we will probably run out of for a week or two or three prior to getting another batch in because basically the switch has been the problem. I'm moving away as quickly as I can from my current manufacturer to new manufacturers.

So that's what we're in the process of. And I'm very excited about it because we've been searching everywhere for manufacturers, frankly, for a few years. We've not had a lot of luck, but this year I found two. In March at the Expo West, the biggest trade show in industry, I've found a really cool family business that is all the way over in Michigan. Right now, my manufacturer is here in Utah. It is what it is and that adds another wrinkle because now we have to ship product which adds a week but also adds cost.

It appears we're going to be able to maintain our prices with them though. They've come out with competitive bids so we'll be okay that way so don't worry about that. As of yet our price should maintain pretty much where they've been unless there's a an outside reason, raw material costs increasing or something like that. But back on track is a great example coming in and we'll have it at the exact same price that it's been. They're also working on our vitamin D3 and K2. they're working our new creatine supplement that I've talked about a couple of episodes.

There working get well, stay well and so on. But what it does mean, well, there's a couple of things. One of the reasons it's been hard to find a manufacturer like this is because of size, the primary reason has been the size. Bigger companies don't want to work with smaller companies. They're looking for big fish, not small fish. Pretty simple. The other thing is though, There are small manufacturers out there, but not all of them have the right certifications. So the types of certications that we're Looking for with CGMP and NSF and these types Of things that our current manufacturer has.

If you, you can find a small manufacturer, but you cant necessarily find small manufacture that meets the standards that we've already set for ourselves. And we're not going to go backwards. So it's been a challenge, But we have found now two, we found two manufacturers that, We believe are very legitimate manufacturers. One is actually here in Utah. We just discovered them literally in the last week. so we just started the ball rolling with them. we don't know where that'll go. but this company in Michigan appears to be a really good solid choice for us and they're working out really well so far.

But it's a big process. We have 40 plus products and it is a mountain of work. I've got to get non-disclosure agreements in place so our formulas and our intellectual properties stay ours, don't leak to anybody else. i've gotta send detailed product specifications to the manufacturers and with each specification comes as many as 50 or 60 ingredients that they have to then source, many of which they haven't sourced before, which is a process. So they may say, well, you know, I can normally get a product to you in eight to 12 weeks, but because it's a brand new item and there's 15 ingredients

Manufacturing Delays and Product Stock Updates 13:11

we've never sourcing before it can take longer. These types of things. And I'm not going to change ingredient raw material suppliers unless I am confident that I have as good or better an ingredient. And that requires work too, because then I had to look at all of the certifications and verifications, and certificates of authenticity, all that type of stuff when I was looking at the individual ingredients. And that's for a product, but we have 40 plus products. So you can see that it's, it a ton of hours.

It's a tone of work. Its a significant headache and it has not been a lot of fun. I'll be the first one to tell you because I'm doing most of it. But. Here's the good news. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I think we're going to be locked in and moving very smoothly with our new Michigan manufacturer by the of year. And I, think within the next couple of months, we will also be in having our first couple orders from our other manufacturer. The goal is to have two active manufacturers that actually are working for us and for you, so that if one has a hiccup, can't get a thing, and we can move it to the other one, that sort of thing.

Basically, you have a backup plan. Now there is a tipping point on the horizon and I'm super excited about that. There's a lot of reasons to be optimistic because we are getting to the volume now thanks to you people who listen to this podcast, people that shop inside Vitality Nutrition, whether in Bountiful or South Ogden or on our website. VitalityNutrition.com and our wholesale partners, which we are growing, selling it into more stores in different areas. We've got Shays Nutrition now in Utah that carries our products, or at least a lot of them.

as well. Dixie Nutrition in St. George and Mesquite down in southern Utah and Cedar City, they're now carrying our products. So we have some really great partners that are helping expand the brand and in expanding the not just our reach, but our volume, which allows us to then get to manufacturers who are bigger, potentially more reliable. It gives us a lot more flexibility and the capacity to do what I've always wanted to. Do without having to compromise on all the things that I already discussed.

So we're getting closer and it is because Mostly people like yourself listening to this show sharing it with friends sharing the podcast sharing The product, you know, whatever you're doing leaving reviews all of those types of things that make that possible So what I'm asking you for right now is to bear with us There will be some potholes in the road ahead some hiccups coming that we have to just be cognizant of Much of it at this point is beyond my control, but what I can control I'm doing my best to control and get on top of that.

And like I say, I think by the end of 2026, we're going to be in much more of a smooth sailing position. But there are a couple of headwinds coming that have nothing to do with my manufacturer, with me, and in some cases, not even with products that I have in my brand. They are things though that you need to know about because they're two of the most common supplements in the entire industry. Odds are you're using one or both of these, whether you are buying them from me or from somebody else. Omega-3 fish oil.

Peru makes up about 20% of the international supply. And they have repeatedly been shutting down their anchovy season over and over this year, and they've reduced their quotas by over 30%, the very lowest level they'd ever had in over a decade. And that is, like I say, a fifth of the supply chain which tightens everything up. What we're already seeing on my end is manufacturers at least pulling back discounts from me, which makes it harder for me to discount it to you. and some manufacturers telling me there may be delays in being able to get product.

Now, so far it's been pretty smooth. There hasn't been anything drastic happening, but we don't know what's ahead with that. So keep your eyes open on the Omega 3 thing. If you start to see prices increase, it will be because of that if you out of stocks, it'll be because of that. And it could make sense to, if you've got it in your budget or whatever, to get a bottle ahead on Omega 3, especially now before prices potentially go up. I don't know if they will. No prices have gone up to me yet, but it's possible.

where prices are going up and it's dramatic and you've probably already seen it is whey protein. And that has to do with the ozempic economy that I talked about a couple of months ago on the show, where now we have protein in pop tarts, we had protein and Doritos and most of what's being used is Whey Protein. So yes, you have your classic whay protein, in a bag or a canister that's been around for decades, but now it in all kinds of foods because everybody's looking for high protein that That's a problem.

Supply and demand are what they are and prices are going up on whey protein. But there is really good news on that side of things too. And that is that our number one protein now at Vitality is not a whee protein at all. It's bone broth, beef bone, broth and beef protein called Rebuild plus and if you haven't heard heard of it, I've got a show on it We'll link it in the show description for you. But basically it's a super super clean Everything you want nothing you don't Chocolate flavor only that's the downside but it is the best chocolate flavor protein I have ever tasted and yes, it' my brand I get that but I heard that from dozens of people not everybody loves it because not Everybody loves any protein powder that's ever been made in the history of mankind but most people are loving this product including my wife who drinks it every single day and has a much more finicky tongue than do I so we have we're excited about this because the price has stayed the same since we launched it almost a year ago now it has become one of our top sellers it tastes delicious it's an incredibly easily digested protein.

It's everything you want without anything you don't. And it's not whey-based, so it is not going up and up in price like so many whay proteins are. If you've got a Ninja Creamy and you haven't made Rebuild Plus chocolate ice cream, what are you waiting for? I'm telling you, it IS awesome. Now, this is an interesting one. I'll just be transparent because I always try to be this way. Jen doesn't love the ice cream, but she loves the protein shake. I have no idea why, because I think the Ice Cream is even better than the Protein Shake.

So you do have to try it. And I guess you'll find out my son, Xander, my youngest son tried it the other day and loved it, asked for seconds.

Supply Chain Headwinds for Omega-3 and Whey Protein 19:48

We're talking a protein that you can make that has like Basically no added sugar. The only sugar is a couple of grams from the honey powder That's in the rebuild plus and whatever sugar in your the milk that you choose to use I use raw milk That I either get from Milk Barn Creamery or Redmond here in Utah And I highly recommend raw Milk for this if you've got it available near you and it's an easy recipe We do a scoop and a half of rebuild in about 12 to 15 ounces of milk just depending on how big of a you know serve how big of a batch you wanna make, I guess.

And you can also throw if you want, which I recently did and happy that I did, a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream in there to make it even more rich. Then I put 10 to 20 drops of monk fruit extract in their or some stevia liquid. I like the monkfruit a little better. We have that from Now Foods. we sell it here and it's also sold in most health grocery stores around the country. 10-20 drops just depending on how sweet you like it. You can always add that after you've blended it to kind of see where you're at.

I shake it all up in a shaker cup, I dump it into the bowl for the creamy and stick it in the freezer overnight and do it again that next evening and it is Phenomenal like I love this stuff. My poor family. Here's that creamy machine running at least four or five times a week. And it's awesome because it just like a zero guilt treat. Oh my gosh. It's amazing. So anyway, I won't dwell on that, but if you haven't tried it and if, if I seriously talked to my sister into buying a creamy so that she could make this protein.

Okay, so, that's how much I like this stuff. Before I close, I want to tell you two more things, and it's two things I'm going to ask of you, but then there's something I am going offer you that I think you're going really appreciate. 2026 has been rough. in a lot of ways, but also incredible. We launched two new products, the GLP-1 Metabolic Optimizer, The Nerve Vitality Formula, I'm gonna talk a little bit about what's happened with those. I am not complaining, it's been a great year, It's just been challenging one, But we've had dozens of great bits of feedback on GLp-one Metabolic Optimizers.

People, especially people monitoring their blood sugar with either CGM or just monitoring it the old fashioned way. or even just based on how they feel, all we hear over and over again is how much better that is. I also anticipate down the road, we're going to start seeing some shifts in A1C, which we are really excited to see once people have been on it for five, six, eight months, you know, that kind of thing, get their blood tested again, I'll be checking mine and I will share that number with you when I get that tested.

because I do know what it was prior to starting the GLP-1 Metabolic Optimizer. Many people are losing weight. Most people were saying less appetite, less sugar cravings. That's certainly been the case for me and I have loved everything about it. But we don't have a single review on our website on this product. So if you are using this Have used it and you love it. Will you please leave us a review? I will never populate the Vitality Nutrition website with bogus reviews. I'm not doing that. It won't play that game.

it could be done. i know it gets done all over the place. If you see a video on vitalitynutrition.com, it's from a legitimate human being who loves the product and left the review. They send them in. We post them. It's easy to do. You just click on the stars or the lever review link on each product page. And if you're willing to that, it would help me tremendously. I would greatly appreciate that level of commitment to what we're doing here at Vitality because again, the more that we are able to build the brand, The less hiccups we have, more products we can introduce that you may really appreciate, that can help you and all of it just gets smoother.

The other thing is we made a big mistake. I launched Nerve Vitality recently. Love this product for nerve issues, nerve pain, discomfort, things like that, tingling, burning, you know, the pins and needles, all the stuff that people deal with there. And then we accidentally somehow because the website company changed their interface, put it as subscription only. We are not a subscription-only company. we'd love for you to subscribe to our products, please do. It's awesome, we appreciate it. But we're never gonna force your hand like some of these scam companies that you've gotta buy six bottles and subscribe in order to get the deal or whatever else.

New Product Feedback and Listener Offer 24:18

That's just not our thing. Thankfully, one of you reached out and said, hey, do I have to to this stuff to buy it? And we said absolutely not, We went in and saw that that's what was set up. So something changed in the setup process. I don't know if that changed or we made a mistake, but either way it's been fixed. It's being remedied. So if you wanted to try nerve vitality, please do. it still 15% off and we're going to keep it 15 percent off for at least a month after this show airs. But here's the opportunity that I want to give you.

There are a lot of products in our brand that we have plenty of in stock that. Not concerned about running out of. And I want to reward people who listen to the show pretty quickly after it comes out. I know I throw out two a week. It's a lot of content. I don't know how many shows you listen to. I'd love to actually hear that from you and you can reach out any of the ways that you could reach to us and answer that question for me. But regardless, for the first 10 days after this show launches, as soon as it launches for 10 more days, after that, there is a code that can use called FIRST25.

It's just the word FIRst, F-I-R-S-T, and the number 25. It's not case sensitive or anything, it's just first 25. And you'll get 25% off as many products as you want in a specific collection. There's a link in the show description, so you need to go to that link, whether you're on YouTube or Spotify or Apple or wherever it is. That collection will be 25 percent off with that code, first25. Let me tell you what's in that collection, It's going to have some of my best selling products that I have plenty of inventory on.

So I'm not worried about making the out of stock situation worse. That includes our apple cider vinegar capsules, our anxiety release, are vital sleep, two of our top sellers, man up our men's performance enhancement formula, or NMN capsule formulas. A bunch of other things are on that deal. I think it's close to 20 items in the collection. Some of our best sellers that we are concerned about quantity are not in there. Back on track, magnesium, the multi, things like that. Omega-3 for the reasons I already mentioned.

So I apologize for not having everything in their for you, but many of out bestsellers, and at least the ones that I'm not worried we're gonna run out of stock because somebody stocked up at 25% off, but if you are a listening list within 10 days of its launch, And I'll do this from time to time, to reward folks like you that really do pay attention to this podcast and listen to every episode, all that kind of stuff. I'm gonna start doing a little more for you in ways like this. First, 25 is the code for 10 days, and then it'll cut off.

You can only use it once during that 10 day period, but you can use on as many products as you want within that specific collection, okay? All right, that's it. We're independent, we're debt free. we are going to stay that way, even if it makes the road a bit more difficult. and this rough patch of stock issues is temporary. We're fixing it. The fix is underway and we are moving in the right direction right now. the real point of today though is to thank you. Thank you for sticking with us. Even when the water gets a little rough, I greatly appreciate it I love what I do here.

I know my team loves it we have such an incredible group of people here I spent 20 minutes telling them how incredible they are at our last team meeting a couple of days ago, I'm blessed in every possible way. I am blessed to have you listening to this show. And blessed have them supporting you and our parents for opening this place up and for us to get to 49 years old is unbelievable. So thrilled. Thank you, thank you thank, you for listening, to me for supporting our brand, for leaving those reviews and sharing this, show all that stuff.

i'm Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio. Thanks for If this episode helped you, follow the show, share it with someone, and explore trusted education and resources at vitalitynutrition.com. See you next time. Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Vitality Radio. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. Thank you.