Nellson Nutraceutical merges nutrition production facilities, expands capacity in California

22 Sep 2022 --- Nellson Nutraceutical is ending its US-based manufacturing operations in its Salt Lake City, Utah facility by the end of December. The company will then consolidate its nutritional powder production, manufacturing equipment and assets to its Anaheim, California facility.

The company is a manufacturer of branded and private-label nutritional bars and functional powder solutions.

“After extensive evaluation, Nellson has made the strategic decision to consolidate facilities and cease operations in Salt Lake City,” says Jean Filion, CEO of Nellson. “Over the past few years, we have invested in expanding the capacity and capabilities of our powder facilities.”

According to Filion, the choice to consolidate was difficult. Still, the move is anticipated to significantly improve the company’s capacity to service its brand partners and enable it to make additional investments in its skills.

“The operational and productivity improvements in Anaheim created the opportunity for consolidation – while ensuring ample growth capacity for the future – which led us to conclude that closing our Salt Lake City facility is in the best interests of Nellson and our clients,” he explains.

Enhancing capacity and capabilities
The company details that Anaheim has all the manufacturing resources and capacity required to produce the volume and product formats currently produced in Salt Lake City, since many of those products are already produced in both locations.

“While we expect to transfer some of Salt Lake City’s assets to enhance Anaheim’s capacity and capabilities further, none of those assets are required to effectuate the volume transfers,” says Bart Child, chief commercial officer at Nellson.

Nellson provides nutritional bars and powders for medical nutrition, weight loss and sports performance.“Over the last five years, Nellson has invested in assembling best-in-class manufacturing assets in its bar and powder facilities,” says Filion.

He explains that this decision continues this investment and strengthens the company’s ability to provide market-leading product innovation and service to our brand partners.

“We thank all of our Salt Lake employees for their contributions, service and dedication to the company, and we pledge to continue to support affected employees during this time.”

Nellson released a white paper with its research on the most recent changes in the nutrition bar snack market. The paper highlighted the importance of protein supply, sugar and fiber content and other functional elements. The company also invested US$70 million in a nutrition bar production facility in California, US.

Nutrition and snack bars in focus
According to Nellson, the market for nutrition bars was booming prior to the pandemic because consumers were looking for bars that offered practical benefits for their health and well-being.

It details that more customers are including nutrition and snack bars in their regular diets, accelerating the development of such products designed to provide specific health benefits. This opens up a niche for bar brands to develop health bars that promote targeted well-being areas, such as mood.

Benefits such as increased energy, focus, stress relief, relaxation, and sleep aid are among the key label claims driving purchases.

Edited by Nicole Kerr