05.01.02
OptiPure/Soft Gel: Making Nutraceuticals A Top Priority
OptiPure, Los Angeles, CA, founded in 1989, is a supplier of raw materials for the nutritional supplement industry. The company was the brainchild of its current owners and president, who felt there was a need to fill a niche for specialty herbs and botanicals in the U.S. marketplace. According to Katie Ferren, marketing director, “We were the first to import Japanese ginkgo and CoQ10,” she said. “Now 15 years later we maintain an expanding product portfolio offering dozens of ingredients to the supplement industry.”
In an effort to become more vertically integrated, sister company Soft Gel Technologies (SGTI) was launched in 1995 with a mission to provide the natural products industry with soft gelatin encapsulation to meet or exceed the highest standards of quality, purity and performance. Ms. Ferren recounted, “We were trying to encapsulate products in soft gels for a lot of our customers and at the time most of the other large soft gel manufacturing companies were in pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter (OTC) products,” she said, adding, “A lot of times nutritional supplements are viewed as the stepchild of soft gel manufacturers and what differentiates us is that we, from the beginning, decided to specialize in nutritional supplements.” In terms of other services, OptiPure and SGTI also focus on hard-to-encapsulate turnkey products, custom formulations, marketing and technical expertise, research and development and sales support.
Currently both companies, Ms. Ferren said, are putting a lot of energy toward new product development and launching new products. “We average launches of between 10-15 new products per year,” she said. “We also just came out with a new product list, which has been updated with all of our new products and new information about OptiPure and SGTI.”
On the ingredient front, OptiPure recently unveiled a new fiber product at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA. In an unprecedented move for the company, it is promoting this fiber for use in both supplements and functional foods. Ms. Ferren anticipated functional foods to be a future focus for the company as several of its supplement ingredients can also be applied to this burgeoning segment.
In terms of the state of the industry, Ms. Ferren offered, “The last year and a half has been really slow for everybody.” Despite this however, Ms. Ferren indicated that the industry is beginning to pick up again. “What we have noticed in this first quarter is a major upswing on all fronts. In fact, this is the best quarter we have had in a long time,” she said. “I think a lot of that stems from the optimism in the industry about sales potential.”
For the future, Ms. Ferren said the focus for OptiPure and SGTI will continue to be on new products. “We have been pretty successful with bringing new products to market that are unique and that no one else offers. I think that is something the company really feels strongly about,” she said, adding, “Our growth plans are centered around providing the best service for existing and potential customers in the nutrition field. I don’t think our customers ever have to worry about becoming second best.”—R.M.
OptiPure/SGTI
6982 Bandini Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90040
Telephone: 323-721-8300;
800-934-3040
Fax: 323-721-9600
E-mail: sales@optipure.com;
sales@soft-gel.com
Website: www.optipure.com;
www.soft-gel.com