Nature’s Way has been a marquee brand in the dietary supplement category since 1969, offering a broad portfolio of formulations and delivery formats, all underpinned by a deep commitment to quality. During a visit to its Green Bay facilities earlier this year, NutraIngredients was given special access to the company’s innovation and quality assurance personnel.
Looking first at the innovation pipeline, Erica Annea, senior manager of innovation at Nature’s Way, explained that sleep and stress are intertwined and consumers are seeking out holistic solutions.
“We’re seeing ingredients like magnesium, specifically magnesium glycinate, ashwagandha, L-theanine perform really well in our portfolio, as consumers are seeking non-melatonin solutions for sleep,” she said.
Better sleep and stress management have implications for healthspan, a category that has enjoyed a breakout year in 2025.
“I think there are a variety of need states in which we can address this situation,” Annea said. “Whether it be our Alive multivitamins to help people get nutrients that they need in the stage that they’re in, or if it is like our weight management powder that helps people on their weight wellness journey where they’re at, I think we’re trying to tackle it in a variety of ways.
“We can meet consumers at different moments with different products that would support them on that journey.”
Meeting consumers with products that are both convenient and efficacious is key, and Nature’s Way has invested heavily in a state-of-the-art gummy plant in Green Bay.
“Really unsurprisingly, I think the gummy market has not bottomed out, and we continue to see gummies as a rising trend across multiple need states,” Annae said.
“So, the consumer is really telling us that gummies are here to stay, and they really are what I would consider a part of the power three formats—capsules, tablets and gummies. Interestingly enough, newer formats are coming into play, and it’s always a risk, I would say, to innovate in these new formats, because you’re asking the consumer to create a new behavior for themselves.
“I think that what we hear consumers tell us through our research is that they’re interested in an experience as long as it’s a good one.”
Quality as a philosophy
If efficacy is one side of the coin, the other is quality, and Travis Borchardt, vice president of regulatory affairs and QC QA, said that quality is a philosophy.
“It’s a vision that we have, and it really starts at the beginning,” he explained. “You can’t test quality into the finished product at the end. It really starts at the source.
“Quality is all about three things. It’s people, processes, and then it’s facility/equipment. If you can really dial in on those three aspects as it pertains to manufacturing dietary supplements, you’re really going to have success in quality, and being able to again see those three things in action is critical to assessing a brand’s quality.”
Beyond the company’s commitment to quality, Nature’s Way is aware that wider industry collaboration and coordination is vital to raising the bar for as many consumers as possible, Borchardt said.
“I think as industry comes together with industry trade initiatives, whether it’s things that CRN has done or GRMA has done, they’re really good examples of industry working together to set standards around things like laboratory controls,” he said.
“You look at the work that American Botanical Council has done through the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program—[that is] a terrific way for industry to come together and really identify issues that are pressing as it pertains to potential adulteration and how do we work together to best identify those areas of risk in how to protect the consumer right from those areas of risk.
“It really comes down to knowledge, and then the ability to execute it against that knowledge, and working together collaboratively really increases that knowledge base.”
