Nutraceuticals World (NW): TSI is turning 25 years old. Can you give our readers some background about how the company came about and how it’s progressed over the years?
 
Joe Zhou, Founder and CEO, TSI Group LTD: In the several years leading up to 1996, we noticed the accelerated pace of dietary supplement raw materials from China. We further observed the common pain points of quality and service made it challenging for companies to add China-made raw materials to their supply chains. TSI was born in March 1996 with the objective of alleviating these pain points, so we established offices in both China and the U.S. It has proven to be good intuition.
 
Since then, TSI has always remained focused on the industry. Our capabilities continue to expand alongside the advancement of the global dietary supplement and nutrition industry vertically, horizontally, and globally over the last 25 years. Today, TSI has more than 500 associates working at six manufacturing facilities, two research centers, and eight sales/services offices around the world.
 
I’m proud to say that we all have a single objective to contribute “healthy” to the life of all consumers with TSI products, solutions, and services. With all of TSI’s capabilities and activities, we deliver extraordinary value to our business partners by discovering new molecules backed by scientific and clinical studies, by developing new and better manufacturing technologies on raw materials and finished dosage forms, by enhancing our global supply chain efficiencies, and by building a network of partners and collaborations. 

NW: What’s changed about the dietary supplement industry during the last 25 years? And what’s stayed the same?
 
Zhou: The dietary supplement industry has evolved and changed significantly over the last 25 years. It has become a much bigger part of the healthcare industry. With the ever-faster advancements in health and nutrition related sciences and IT related technologies, the number of new products, with stronger scientific evidences and better outcomes, accelerates year by year. The percentages of the population who regularly consume dietary supplements is also increasing year by year. However, one thing always stays the same, and true for the dietary supplement industry, and that is the tireless pursuit of new ways to improve millions of people’s health and wellness.
 
NW: How would you assess the level of innovation happening in today’s marketplace?
 
Zhou: Innovation always drives the growth of this industry. The level of innovation increases year on year. But I’ve always seen that there are different types of innovations. The majority of the innovations, small “i” innovations, are gradual and incremental to the current products or services. The industry is somewhat lacking in big “I” innovations, which are disruptive and revolutionary. 

 
NW: How have you been navigating the disruption posed by COVID-19? What challenges have you faced?
 
Zhou: COVID-19 had some major disruptions to the industry, especially, during the first 6 months. Many of the raw material producers in China, where the majority of the raw materials for the dietary supplement industry are produced, experienced mandatory shut down ordered by the Chinese government. Then, there was a huge demand for immune related ingredients, such as vitamin C, which caused mild to severe shortages of these materials for several months. The pandemic caused quite a disturbance on transportation as well. The availability was reduced over the entire year and the shipment times were much longer and much less reliable.  At the same time, the transportation costs were much higher. The transportation situation is still not recovered yet and it will take some time to return to normal depending on how effective the pandemic is controlled globally. 
 
NW: What sets TSI apart from other contract manufacturers in the market?
 
Zhou: Our contract manufacturing services division is one of our three business divisions and it is an integral part of our overall business. TSI centers on the continuous value creations for our customers by leveraging the entire suite of TSI’s capabilities not just contract manufacturing’s.  We build true partnerships one customer at a time by creating a tailor-designed specific solution for each.  

 
NW: We hear companies often claim to be vertically integrated. What does that mean from your perspective? 
 
Zhou: Vertical integration refers to an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. In today’s world, there are very few true vertically integrated products or services by this definition. I think transparent supply chain is a more suitable synonym to replace vertical integration. The span of TSI’s capabilities ranges from raw material production all the way to fully packed, customer-ready products all under our control, which in some cases makes it possible to claim vertical integration. TSI has built and will continue improving a transparent supply chain eco-system with various stakeholders to ensure the entire supply chain of our products is secure, fast, and safe to meet the needs of our customers as well as regulatory compliance. 
  
NW: What advice would you give brand owners as they navigate the dietary supplement category today?
 
Zhou: The end goal of the dietary supplement industry is to create products and services to make people healthy. This is a great industry to be in. For all stakeholders in this business, we should always be looking for the products and services that have substantial scientific evidence to meet the true market demands.