Nutraceuticals World (NW): Can you briefly discuss Prinova’s capabilities and what you can offer to potential partners?

Jason Sikkenga, President, Ingredient & Particle Enhancement: Prinova is strategically structured to meet the rapidly changing demands of the food, beverage, nutritional, and supplement industries. We are the largest U.S. functional ingredient importer, as well as the largest distributor of vitamin C, vitamin B, amino acids, sweeteners, and caffeine.

To better service our customers, we also offer best-in-class premix formulation and manufacturing, flavor formulation and manufacturing, powder product development, and co-manufacturing. Our core capabilities consist of:

• A vertically integrated supply chain and on-hand inventory to provide a reliable, one-stop-shop for 2,000+ ingredients, premixes, and flavors;
• Domestic and international teams yield real-time supply chain and product insights to safeguard ingredient forecasts;
• World-class quality and regulatory services ensure the utmost care in compliance, traceability, and transparency.

NW: What benefits and value do premixes offer to companies and brand holders?

Josh Lanagan, President, Solutions & Flavors: The industry understands the benefits of premixes in formulation; but they may not realize Prinova’s size and scope can truly simplify their supply chain. Our premixes and blends benefit from access to our full range of ingredients, custom services, and expertise, from development to production. Direct ingredient sourcing and distribution ensures we guarantee the highest-quality ingredients, remove risk, and offer long-term, fixed-price contracts for added assurance.


NW: How do you approach/develop custom premixes with customers?

Lanagan: Prinova’s complementary InsideTrak™ enables personalization and acceleration, allowing customers to seek as much or as little assistance in their product development journey. Customers collaborate with our R&D experts to design a custom and transparent powder formula for RTD, RTM, supplements, tablets, and gummies. Then, we can lead the way with ingredient sourcing, premix blending, flavors and if needed, contract manufacturing (through Armada Nutrition).

NW: How is Prinova addressing the explosion of growth in the carbonated beverage industry?

Brent Laffey, Chief Commercialization Officer: As consumers’ thirst for functional beverages grows, brands are challenged to offer products with more robust ingredient labels and claims. And these formulas require premixes. For example, original energy beverages primarily consisted of caffeine. Today, they are formulated with multiple types of sweeteners, vitamins, amino acids, extracts, botanicals, and/or more. Prinova can be a logistics solution for many brands. Our formula is simple: largest U.S. importer of functional beverage ingredients + largest distributor of acidulants and sweeteners + one million sq. ft. of premix manufacturing in three U.S. locations = provides coast to coast coverage for brands.


NW: Tell us more about Prinova’s one million sq. ft. of manufacturing space.

Laffey: Armada Nutrition, a division of Prinova, is expanding with a 440,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Salt Lake City, UT. This custom-built, high-tech facility features sustainable initiatives that enhance both our people and planet. We’ve implemented Red Zone, a paperless quality system, designed to eliminate the potential for human error. We’ve invested in the best-in-class Matcon enclosed in-blending system that improves production efficiencies, reduces scrap, and ensures food safety. Finally, the building was designed with dozens of large skylights and windows, allowing natural light to flood the premises.


NW: How does Prinova manage today’s complex supply chain challenges?

Sikkenga: No doubt, the last few years have been challenging for everyone, and we thank our customers for partnering with us through the evolving crisis. While there are signs of some improvement, we do not believe the end of the supply chain roller coaster ride is near. Between our product managers, logistics managers, and global team, we track the impact of fluctuation in prices, freight costs, port delays, China shutdowns, labor, and tariffs. Having global boots on the ground gives us the edge to garner real-time information, allowing us to prepare and react quickly.

In addition, we share these insights through a monthly Ingredient Market Report which serves as a tool to help our customers understand the environment to make timely decisions. Most importantly, it’s been through the financial backing of our parent company, Nagase, that enabled us to buy deep into inventory to fulfill customer contracts and spot orders.