Selecting the best contract manufacturing partner to outsource your dietary supplement production can be one of the most critical decisions related to your supplement brand’s success.  Whether your product set is vitamins, minerals, or botanicals, your nutraceutical brand’s reputation is tied to the quality of your products.  A great dietary supplement contract manufacturer can be difficult to identify unless you know the right questions to ask.

The most important qualities of a great supplement contract manufacturer are competency, honesty, transparency, communication, and collaboration.  As a supplement brand owner, you should ask questions to evaluate all of these qualities.  Some of the questions you should be asking are below.  If the contract manufacturer is not completely forthcoming and transparent with their responses, that’s the first sign they may not be a high quality supplement manufacturer.

COMMUNICATION and COLLABORATION

How responsive are they?  Does it take days for them to reply to your questions?  If the supplement manufacturer is not responsive during the presales process, they will not be responsive during the order and manufacturing process.

How collaborative are they?  Do they listen to your challenges and goals and try to solve them?  Are they willing to do something different for you?  Custom supplement contract manufacturers should be a collaborative partner that helps address problems.  Simple things like talking through packaging options should be easy and helpful.

Are they willing to do weekly status meetings for your large projects?  One of the best ways to ensure a successful supplement manufacturing process is to have planned weekly status update meetings where all parties can talk through all aspects of the pending order.  Identifying issues early can minimize and even eliminate timeline delays.

These are just some of the questions you should be asking if you are a nutraceutical brand owner and are evaluating contract manufacturers.  If you would like to talk with Sawgrass Nutra Labs about their supplement manufacturing capabilities, please email sales@sawgrassnutralabs.com or call 904-456-0959.