A warehouse situated off Warm Springs Road in southwest Las Vegas is responsible for distributing some of America’s favorite and most sought-after nutritional supplements.
Founded in 2011, Las Vegas-based DrVita is the invisible force behind some mega-corporations’ supplements, shipping out more than 200,000 bottles nationally every week.
The green bottles with a yellow cap seen at places like Walgreens are made by the Las Vegas company. DrVita produces the drugstore chain’s turmeric curcumin, ginger root, milk thistle and tart cherry extract supplements, among others. Additionally, the company makes and manufactures its own supplements under the name Nature’s Lab.
According to DrVita’s founder, the company’s four biggest customers are Costco, Walgreens, Vitamin Shoppe and Walmart. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
And with the supplement industry continuing to grow, DrVita is growing alongside. The company is adding 20,000 square feet to its operational space and 15 to 20 new employees.
The main reason for this new growth? Gummies.
DrVita’s start
Born in Springfield, Illinois, CEO Wayne Gorsek was adopted by his grandparents and had dreams of going into the Air Force — taking inspiration from his grandfather who worked on an Air Force base.
Although, when his grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the 1970s, he turned to natural alternatives to help him, as well as other mounting health issues his aging grandparents were facing.
“I’m self taught,” he said, adding that he would visit a 24-hour medical school library in Springfield, where he is originally from, and do his own research on diseases and medical issues.
Gorsek also practices what he preaches, taking around 40 supplements a day.
He started his first vitamin company, VitaCost, out of his basement in 1994. From there, he grew his firm into an Inc. 500 company five times with revenue of $300 million. What led him to the Valley was VitaCost’s distribution center, which he helped establish.
In 1999 and 2001, the SEC investigated Gorsek and some of his associates for fraudulently promoting 20 microcap companies in exchange for cash and securities through a public relations firm he operated. The firm would promote and publish research from the companies themselves, not independent, and inflate the value and price of the shares.
It was settled in 2003 and found Gorsek and his associated liable of securities fraud. In the settlement, Gorsek was barred from “associating with a registered broker-dealer.”
The investigation and complaint were separate from his work at VitaCost.
But when Gorsek took VitaCost public in 2009 as the largest shareholder, in the same year he was also booted from the company because Nasdaq would not allow Gorsek to make any policy decisions. Gorsek described it as being forced to retire.
Despite leaving the company in 2009, he remained in the valley to start DrVita.
He said the dryness of Las Vegas is perfect for the encapsulation machines to run smoothly and the location allows for quick distribution around the country because of the proximity to the Los Angeles ports.
His company started “the hard way,” by manufacturing herbal supplements like turmeric and ashwaganda, Gorsek said, though it makes non-herbal supplements as well.
Rigorous quality checks
During the manufacturing process, its capsules go through 90 different quality checks to ensure the supplements are free of contamination, have the right amount of active ingredients and are safe to consume, executives said.
And not only are the products certified by the Food and Drug Administration and National Sanitation Foundation, a public health and safety organization, DrVita goes a step further, Gorsek said, and is United States Pharmacopeia, which sets standards for health care products in the U.S, verified.
The USP verification is something DrVita prides itself on, costing “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to Gorsek.
“Our turmeric is 95 percent active. We’ve tested some on Amazon that came back at 1 and 2 percent active,” he said. “It’s not going to work. So you got to trust your supplier.”
New growth for DrVita
Currently, DrVita occupies around 90,000 square feet of space in its two-story warehouse at 6890 W. Warm Springs Road, with 115 employees. It is now expanding into the vacant space next door that was previously home to a gym, adding 20,000 square feet and adding around 15 to 20 to their headcount.
This new expansion comes with an anticipated gummy line from the company. Gummies have become a large part of the supplement industry because they are chewable.
“The gummy market right now is actually the fastest-growing segment in the nutritional space,” Vice President of Operations James Smith said. “This gummy line will probably make up a third of our business and add on 30 percent into our head count, so it’s going to be significant.”
Gorsek said he has seen demand from his customers asking him to make a gummy line, but he hopes to do it “differently,” by adding more active ingredients and taking out as much sugar content as possible to make it “health conscious.”
The gummy market is another challenging venture due to the heat component. Gummies must be heated to 190 degrees for around an hour, but heat can also destroy some nutrients, like vitamin C or B.
The company’s scoopable powder supplement line has also seen a big increase in production.
Supplement industry ‘recession proof’
According to a National Institute of Health Study published in 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic kicked people into high gear when it comes to their health. Between 2018 to 2020, dietary supplement sales increased by 50 percent, exceeding $220 billion in sales by 2020.
“This industry, in general, is almost recession proof,” said Smith. “So since COVID-19 it’s just continuing to trend upward, so there’s more and more pressure on the market to continue to deliver that, and then there’s a lot of growth in a lot of new supplements.”
For DrVita, they have seen growth in ashwaganda, specifically due to fanfare from social media platforms like TikTok. Although, the NIH study claims many have turned to “immune boosting” supplements like zinc, vitamin C and D and selenium.
According Smith, the momentum just keeps growing, even post-pandemic, with their customers demanding more due to consumer trends. Currently, they are bidding on new SKUs, or products, for private labels and plan on increasing the amount of bottles they ship out.
“So we’re anticipating with just within the next few months, the amount of bottles that we’ll be shipping out of this facility is about 20 to 25 percent more bottles per week, just related to the new SKUs that we’ve added recently,” Smith said. “We’ve got about 10 to 15, new Vitamin Shoppe SKUs. We added five Walmart SKUs, and then we’re we’re still bidding on additional SKUs.”
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
