Do you want to start a vitamin company and you want to know the cost breakdown? If YES, here are 5 factors that affect the cost of manufacturing a supplement.
People are constantly looking for ways to better themselves, and many turn to supplements. Supplement businesses create and market – but don’t actually manufacture these supplements. According to reports, the supplement industry is huge, strong and offers lots of potential.
In-store sales at health stores have been rising at a promising 4.5 percent annually, and online vitamin and supplement sales have been growing at 12 percent each year. Together, these industries account for more than $30 billion annually and have over 100,000 businesses.
A large number of the adult population all over the world use health or dietary supplements to enhance their health. Health supplements are products that are packed with healthy ingredients like enzymes, amino acids, botanicals, minerals, and vitamins. These products come in the form of capsules, tablets, liquids, gel caps, powder, or soft gels.
Note that growing consumer awareness concerning health issues, a surge in disposable income, along with rapid urbanization, are expected to drive the growth of the market over the next seven years. Consumer attitude is exceptionally positive towards dietary supplements with added wellness and health benefits.
Also, medical discoveries, food innovations, changing lifestyles, increasing healthcare costs, rising geriatric population, and expectations about their high prices have accelerated the overall market growth and the product demand.
A supplement needs to be designed by someone who’s an expert in biology, biochemistry and/or physiology. The product designer is expected to have a degree (and perhaps an advanced graduate degree) in one of these areas, and they ought to be familiar with the current literature on supplements.
Supplement business owners themselves, however, don’t have to be experts in these areas. Business owners who have a basic or no background in science can hire someone who has the credentials needed to create a product.
Note there are experts who will offer consulting services, and many supplement manufacturers have product development teams that can help business owners. Whoever helps with product development is usually paid on a per-project basis.
5 Factors That Determine the Cost of Manufacturing a Supplement/Vitamin
Note that the cost of manufacturing a supplement/vitamin tends to differ greatly based on product and company. If you’re thinking of starting your own supplement or vitamin line, the following information will help you better understand the cost of manufacturing these products. It’ll also help in explaining to your customers why the supplements you offer are priced higher.
1. Ingredient Source
The source of an ingredient can have a huge impact on the cost of manufacturing a supplement and the price it is sold to customers.
These include ingredients that are developed after years of research as well as economic investments so as to procure substances with efficacy, quality, and that have higher absorption than the ones that are available on the market already.
Note that this higher quality comes at a cost. However, it has the benefit of procuring a technologically advanced and superior product. For instance, glucosamine extracted from shark costs far more when compared to those derived from bovine sources.
Calcium carbonates are affordable and widely available; however, some research reveals that expensive calcium citrate is better absorbed.
2. Origin
Another key factor that always influences the cost of manufacturing supplement is the origin (Synthetic or natural) of the ingredients. Some producers use synthetic ingredients to save money because their production costs are low, and there is no need to manage the natural sources from which the functional principles are to be extracted.
While on the other side, these substances don’t have the same quality as the natural ones. The bioavailability of the raw materials in the product is another factor that affects the supplement cost.
3. Type of Packaging
The choice of packaging will affect the cost of manufacturing a supplement. Some ingredients tend to perish easily due to air, light, different temperature, and needs specific packaging and format.
Nonetheless, “non-standard” formats tend to be expensive, and manufacturers who plan on cutting down their cost will not be taking this into account, thereby obtaining a supplement that contains ingredients that have been altered, making the product less safe and effective.
4. The Concentration of Ingredients
This is maybe the most obvious and also the most underestimated aspect that affects the cost of manufacturing a supplement. This is more or less the concentration of the raw material and its daily dosage. There are several cheap products with a low concentration of ingredients and whose effectiveness is quite unlikely.
Manufacturers tend to carefully examine regulatory shifts and also adjust accordingly to avoid supply disruption or consumer backslash caused by product quality concerns.
5. Manufacturer
Have it in mind that the manufacturer you choose to help research and produce the supplement will influence the cost. However, when you select a supplement manufacturer, irrespective of the price you are adviced to go for a manufacturer that’s FDA-registered, GMP-certified, and NSF-certified.
Also, the manufacturer you pick should also be able to provide an analysis certificate for each batch, which proves what ingredients are in each batch. While such manufacturers aren’t that affordable to work with, they offer guaranteed products.
Among the producers who meet these criteria, there are very few who accept just 150 units of the initial order. With $10,000, however, business owners will have the required funds to make larger initial orders and meet the producer’s higher initial orders.
Conclusion
Although there is no exact fee generally proven to be the cost of manufacturing supplements or vitamins, the above information will help you understand the real cost of manufacturing supplements or vitamins in the United States.