The UK’s biggest vitamin and supplement maker from Swadlincote has been shortlisted for an export award for helping keep millions healthy in a Covid-emerging world.
IVC Brunel Healthcare, which has a 30,000 square metre base in the South Derbyshire town, has been shortlisted in the Export category of the Made in the Midlands awards run by Insider Media.
Tom Hatton, head of business development and innovation at IVC Brunel Healthcare, said the company was seeing continued growth in its global market, part of a sea change in the way that people in a Covid-emerging environment were now taking preventative measures to ward off bugs.
He said: “Emerging from Covid, the vitamins market has seen really significant change. We are seeing people taking preventative healthcare more seriously, taking vitamins before they get ill. People understand that there are good quality products on the shelf. They can’t afford to be off work during a cost of living crisis and they need to be staying healthy.”
IVC Brunel Healthcare makes four and a half billion tablets a year for global brands as well as private label products, including traditional herbal remedies such as echinacea and milk thistle, along with more than 250 different vitamin formulations.
Employing around 580 staff, around a fifth of the overall multi-million pound business is taken up with its export arm, a sector that is growing each year.
The company sells its products to a range of countries, being particularly strong in Europe, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, with a new launch in Mexico coming soon.
Exporting vitamins abroad reveals interesting details about varying healthcare priorities in different countries – with products such as vitamin D supplements particularly popular in countries where there is not so much natural sunlight. There are also differing trends as to whether people in a country prefer to take their supplements in the form of a water soluble powder, or tablet.
Tom said: “We’ll sell a lot more 50+ products in some countries, and many more vitamin D products in countries like Finland because of the lack of sunshine. It’s interesting because pre-Covid you probably wouldn’t have found any tablet with more than 25mg of vitamin D in this country, but because the formulation is different abroad, we’ve developed a higher level of vitamin D for our UK market too.”
Holders of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, IVC Brunel Healthcare was also crowned Manufacturer of the Year at the East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire Business Awards in 2022.
Tom said: “I think it’s brilliant we’ve been shortlisted in these awards for the export side of the business. Growing up, all you’d hear on the news was that British manufacturing was dying and we didn’t make anything anymore. But here, in this little town in Derbyshire, we’re doing big things and feeling that we’re doing a really good job of it. IVC Brunel Healthcare is a company that really looks after its staff, and we’ve grown our business year on year too.”
Winners of the Insider Media awards will be revealed at the awards ceremony on May 4, at the Macdonald Burlington Hotel in Birmingham.
