Did You Know How Most Supplement Companies Are Actually Formed?

Most people picture a supplement company the same way. A team of scientists in a lab out back, developing formulas all day, making fresh product for the customer. That picture is wrong for most of the industry.

Many supplement brands never formulate anything. They start with a contract lab, pick a formula the lab already makes, put a new label on it, and sell it as their own. If you have tried product after product and felt like nothing works, this is a big part of the reason. You may have been buying the same formula over and over under different names.

 

What’s In This Article — Plain English Guide

Whether you are wondering how the supplement industry actually works behind the scenes, why so many products seem to promise the same thing, or how to tell who really made what is in your bottle, this article is for you. Here is what it covers:

→    How a supplement brand is usually started, and why labs actively recruit people to launch one. See: Section 1

→    What white labeling is and why the same unpatented formula can be sold by 10, 15, or 20 brands at once. See: Section 2

→    Who owns the brand you trust, and why investors and parent companies shape what goes in the bottle. See: Section 3

→    Why so little has changed in decades, and what that means for absorption. See: Section 4

→    Five questions to ask any supplement company before you buy. See: Section 5

Short on time? Jump to Section 2 for how white labeling works, or Section 5 for the questions to ask.

 

Section 1 — How a Supplement Brand Is Usually Started

In much of the industry, the lab comes first and the brand comes second.

Contract manufacturers do not just wait for orders. Many actively recruit people to start supplement brands, because every new brand is a new customer for the lab. The pitch is simple: you bring the money and the marketing, the lab brings a ready-made product line. Labs are literally advertising to get people to open up supplement companies.

The conversation often goes something like this. Someone wants to make money in supplements. They go to a lab and ask what they can sell. The lab offers a menu. A multivitamin. A mushroom blend. A joint formula. Then the question becomes how to make it look different from everyone else selling the same thing, not how to make it work better.

That is the key point. The person selling the product did not design it. The lab did.

Section 2 — White Labeling and the Same Formula Under 20 Different Names

This model is called white labeling (sometimes private labeling). The lab owns and produces the formula. The brand buys it, adds its own label, and sells it.

If a formula is not patented, nothing stops the lab from selling it to anyone who asks. That means there could be 10, 15, or 20 businesses selling the same product, promising the same results, each with a different label and a different price. Founder Jason Donas put it plainly: other businesses “gather investors, contact a lab, white label the same product six other companies are selling, plus or minus one ingredient.”

For the buyer, that has real consequences:

•       Less control over sourcing. If the lab switches to a cheaper raw material, the brand often does not find out until the change is already on shelves.

•       Less ability to adjust. A formula built for many companies at once is not built to be updated quickly for any one of them.

•       Less accountability. A brand that did not design a formula usually cannot explain why each ingredient is there or at what level.

•       Good formulas get drowned out. When a category fills up with near-identical products, the few that are carefully built are hard to find in the noise.

This is why so many people end up scratching their heads, convinced nothing works. They switch brands, but they never actually switch formulas.

Section 3 — Who Owns the Brand You Trust?

The name on the label is often not the company in charge. Some of the best-known names in supplements and pet health are owned by global corporations or investment firms:

•       Nature’s Bounty was sold by private equity firm KKR to Nestlé in 2021. In September 2026, Nestlé agreed to sell it to another private equity firm, Yellow Wood Partners. [1, 2]

•       OLLY was acquired by Unilever in 2019. [3]

•       Onnit was acquired by Unilever in 2021. [4]

•       Zesty Paws was acquired by H&H Group, a Hong Kong-listed health and nutrition company, in 2021 in a deal reported at $610 million. [5, 6]

•       NaturVet was acquired by Swedencare, a publicly traded Swedish company, in 2022 for nearly $448 million. [7, 8]

•       Nom Nom fresh dog food was acquired by Mars Petcare in 2022. [9]

When a brand is owned by a much larger business, decisions about what goes in the bottle are made inside that business, one that answers to shareholders or investors. In any company built that way, cost is part of every formula decision.

Most people never trace a brand back to its owner, and product pages rarely make it obvious. It is public information, though, and it is worth looking up. A brand’s About page tells you its story. A little digging tells you who it answers to.

Section 4 — Why So Little Has Changed in Decades

Look at a supplement shelf today and much of it looks the way it did 40 or 50 years ago. Powders in white tubs. Gelatin capsules. Long ingredient lists.

The problem is not what is listed on the label. It is how much of it your body, or your dog’s body, can actually absorb. If an ingredient is not absorbed, it cannot be used, no matter how impressive the dose looks on the back of the bottle. A small amount of a highly bioavailable ingredient can have more functional relevance than a larger amount of a poorly absorbed one.

Improving absorption takes extra processing, extra cost, and someone willing to pay for both. In a model built on reselling a lab’s existing formula, there is little reason for anyone to take that step.

Section 5 — Five Questions to Ask Any Supplement Company

You do not need a science degree to cut through this. You just need to ask the right questions:

•       Who formulated this product? The brand, or the lab that produces it?

•       Is the formula patented or patent pending? If not, how many other brands might be selling the same thing?

•       Who owns the company? Is it investor-backed, or part of a larger parent company?

•       Is it third-party tested? By an independent lab, not only the manufacturer?

•       What has been done to make it absorbable? Or is it the same powder and capsule format the industry has used for decades?

A company that built its own formula can answer every one of these. A company reselling a shared recipe usually cannot or does not want to, because it did not make those choices to begin with.

The Bottom Line

If you only hear what a company says it does right, you will assume every company does the same. Most do not. Most supplement brands are marketing companies selling a lab’s formula, and many of those labs are selling the same formula to everyone who walks through the door.

In Part 2, we walk through how VENJENZ was built differently, from who formulates the product to how it is made absorbable, and why that choice is the reason the company exists.

VENJENZ products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual experiences vary.

Sources and Citations

1.     [1] Nestlé. “Nestlé to Acquire Core Brands of The Bountiful Company.” April 2021. https://www.nestle.com/media/pressreleases/allpressreleases/nestle-acquire-core-brands-the-bountiful-company-health-nutrition-portfolio

2.     [2] Food Dive. “Nestlé Reaches $1B Deal to Sell 7 Vitamin, Mineral and Supplement Brands.” September 2026. https://www.fooddive.com/news/nestle-sell-mainstream-vitamins-minerals-supplements-business-to-private-equity/829321/

3.     [3] Nutraceuticals World. “Unilever to Acquire Supplement Company OLLY Nutrition.” 2019. https://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/breaking-news/unilever-to-acquire-supplement-company-olly-nutrition/

4.     [4] Unilever. “Unilever to Acquire Onnit.” April 2021. https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2021/unilever-to-acquire-onnit/

5.     [5] PR Newswire. “Zesty Paws to Be Acquired by H&H Group.” 2021. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zesty-paws-to-be-acquired-by-hh-group-301360334.html

6.     [6] Forbes. “Feel-Good Deal: Zesty Paws $610M Sale Shows Potential of Pet Wellness Market.” August 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2021/08/29/feel-good-deal-zesty-paws-610m-sale-shows-potential-of-pet-wellness-market/

7.     [7] Swedencare. “Swedencare Acquires NaturVet.” https://www.swedencare.com/en/news/swedencare-acquires-naturvet

8.     [8] Pet Food Processing. “Swedencare Completes Acquisition for Almost $448 Million.” https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/15491-swedencare-completes-acquisition-for-almost-448-million

9.     [9] PetfoodIndustry. “Mars Petcare to Acquire Nom Nom Fresh, Delivered Pet Food.” https://www.petfoodindustry.com/pet-food-market/article/15468526/mars-petcare-to-acquire-nom-nom-fresh-delivered-pet-food