When Don Kerrigan, a well-versed govt beforehand serving because the president of Nature’s Bounty, was appointed to be the CEO of Nestlé Health Science U.S. in 2021 on account of the acquisition of the worldwide vitamin participant, he had an formidable imaginative and prescient for the enterprise — discovering extra scalable alternatives in CPG sectors the place the Swiss conglomerate doesn’t historically have a foothold.

Launched over a decade in the past, Nestlé Health Science has emerged as a number one pressure in pioneering dietary options with a various portfolio of manufacturers devoted to advancing medical vitamin and pharmaceutical therapies.

With a rising variety of health-focused merchandise out there in the marketplace pushed by shoppers prioritizing meals as drugs, Nestlé Health Science has rapidly capitalized on the pattern, onboarding a handful of better-for-you grocery manufacturers over time, notably Dr. Andrew Abraham-founded Orgain and Vital Proteins. This portfolio enlargement resonates with Kerrigan personally.

“Transitioning into Nestlé is somewhat familiar to me because I spent a good amount of my career in the consumer healthcare space working for multinational corporations like Pfizer,” Kerrigan just lately instructed me throughout an unique sit-down interview at Vital Proteins’s Chicago headquarters. “But there’s a sense of entrepreneurship within Nestlé Health Science that’s more indicative of what I experienced at The Bountiful Company and Vital Proteins.”

Kerrigan recalled how collagen largely remained as a novelty ingredient to American shoppers when Vital Proteins was first launched in 2012 by former NSSA aerospace engineer Kurt Seidensticker. Fast ahead to at the moment, collagen that makes up almost 30% of all human protein content material is a $10 billion-plus global business, and Vital Proteins accounts for a lion’s share of the market.

“Collagen is a segment with a lot of opportunities for people to engage with: it not only has orientation towards women, the influence Vital Proteins has on the rest of our portfolio in terms of design and aesthetics is also really compelling,” Kerrigan pressured.

Creating New Playbooks For The Portfolio

Vital Proteins presently provides a variety of merchandise from powders, snacks bars, to ready-to-drink drinks, and, to some extent, has remodeled the best way folks incorporate this important protein into their every day lives utilizing clear and sustainably-sourced components.

After promoting its majority stake to Nestlé Health Science in 2020, the model continued to realize traction: factors of market share elevated by 3.5 over the previous yr, whereas new flavors and SKUs, reminiscent of salted caramel, pumpkin spice, and Vital Protein Plus (collagen with further advantages), had been additionally added to its portfolio.

Kerrigan notes how Vital Proteins is a “very scalable brand” that has an unlimited room for client acceptance and enlargement. More importantly, its digital activation throughout social media may also create a playbook for all Nestlé Health Science’s companies throughout three totally different verticals — dietary dietary supplements, medical vitamin, and prescription drugs.

Commenting on future acquisition alternatives, Kerrigan mentioned the corporate will put classes, reminiscent of greens, plant-based, dietary supplements providing emotional help advantages, in a excessive precedence.

“The organization has largely been built through acquisitions, and we’ll continue either finding opportunities where we don’t have strength or sectors where we aren’t necessarily reaching consumers; versus in the past, we bought for capabilities,” he mentioned.

“A lot of what we focus on right now is integrating the businesses we have today by taking advantage of our size and scale, continuing to drive growth, but also not losing what’s so special and unique about those brands.”

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