GMP Laboratories of America offers a complete range of manufacturing and packaging services in its state of the art 100,000 square-foot facilities. The family run business has been operating for over 25 years. Its team of qualified, experienced, and well-trained competent professionals can offer innovative solutions to specific manufacturing needs. This, and its “trademarked” personal service, has played a key role in establishing GMP Laboratories as a leading contract manufacturer of high quality dietary supplements and homeopathic drug products.

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Nutraceuticals World (NW): COVID-19 has been extremely disruptive of supply chains. How have you adapted in managing the supply of raw materials?

Adam Ishaq, Sales Manager, GMP Laboratories of America, Inc.: We have done our best to qualify more vendors to expand our supplier base to help ensure we can always get the raw materials our customers need. Unfortunately, with more unique or branded raw materials there is only so much supply available at any given time. At GMP Labs, we emphasize keeping an honest and transparent dialogue with our customers to ensure they know about the delays we are experiencing. It is crucial to manage customer expectations in the manufacturing business, especially during such a difficult time in the supply chain of nutraceuticals. We live by the mantra that “it is always better to under promise and over deliver, rather than overpromise and under-deliver.”
 

NW: How have you balanced employee safety with increased demand for dietary supplement products while also managing customer expectations during this public health emergency?

Ishaq: For GMP Labs, the health and safety of our employees is our top priority. Thankfully, as a cGMP compliant company and an NSF for Sport Certified Lab, we always have the highest quality and safety procedures in place. We have only increased these by working to limit employee gatherings and minimizing close contact wherever possible. We have altered some of our work areas so that we have traffic going one-way to avoid employees congregating or walking past each other if not necessary. Thankfully, since things like masks and intensive cleaning have always been a part of our workplace, the increased safety protocols we have have not had an adverse effect on our lead times. Our customers are all aware of the issues with COVID-19 and have been very understanding about what GMP Labs has had to do to make sure our employees are safe while manufacturing their products.
 
NW: What advice would you give to companies as they evaluate potential manufacturing partners today?

Ishaq: Third party certifications are always an important evaluation point since you can get an impartial perspective on the QA, QC, and production processes at a manufacturing partner’s facility. It is also always good to try and visit the lab to ensure their operations match the claims they are making, though this can be hard due to the pandemic. It is also important to understand which product types and certifications are important to your company, to ensure that the manufacturing partner can support you for future endeavors. As a partner, GMP Labs has extensive experience helping to flavor and create powders and liquids, so that using a third-party flavor company is not necessary for the brand. GMP Labs is also very experienced in helping obtain organic, halal, and kosher certifications for our customers, ensuring that we are there to support our brand partners for whatever products they may look to create in the future.

 
NW: What separates GMP Labs of America from other contract manufacturing organizations?

Ishaq: GMP Labs of America separates itself from other manufacturers by ensuring that we have open and honest communication about our lead times and any issues we face while manufacturing products. Being in business for 25 years has taught us that customers are always receptive to any challenges we face if we make them aware of what is happening and how we plan to overcome those issues. We hear of many manufacturers who are, unfortunately, unresponsive or try to sweep issues under the rug and then end up disappointing customers by not keeping them aware of the progress on their orders. By always valuing transparency with our customers, GMP Labs builds partnerships that are able to span years and even decades.

 
NW: Demand for custom, personalized nutrition solutions continues to grow. What challenges and opportunities does that present for brand owners?

Ishaq: The biggest challenges presented by custom nutrition is that manufacturing costs are always driven down by the economy of scale. It is much more efficient, and therefore less costly, to manufacture products in larger batches and package them in the same bottles to ensure the most efficient manufacturing procedures. Custom nutritional solutions can require a variety of different tablets/capsules/powders for a single customer, which means purchasing large orders can be tough for each component of a custom nutrition supplement plan. It is therefore important for brands to communicate with their customers about the advantages of having personalized nutrition, and then expect that these types of solutions are a premium product that may have a higher price.