Brochure - Nutrabolt by Business Chief USA

C O M P A N Y I N S I G H T

WORK, PLAY, WORKOUT.

In Partnership With:

and the supply chain of partner power

Having enjoyed remarkable growth since the turn of the decade, the sports nutrition expert has had to mature its supply chain processes and develop deep partnerships with key suppliers Written by Tom Wadlow Produced by Denitra Price

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“I

t’s easy to get very passionate about helping people with health and wellness,” says Casey Bauer, Chief Operating Officer at Nutrabolt. A sports nutrition enthusiast and long-time fitness hobbyist, Bauer oversees operations including supply chain, product development, quality and IT, promoted to COO in December 2016 having arrived as SVP of Supply Chain in August of the previous year. The maturation of Nutrabolt’s supply chain during this time has allowed it to cement its position as a leading sports nutrition company in the USA, providing a foundation to roll out new product ranges aimed at varying audiences looking for products to achieve their sport nutrition goals. For Bauer, having driven the transformation of Pharmavite’s supply chain, the opportunity to take on a new challenge – one that is so heavily dependent on partnership networks – was too enticing to turn down. “I uprooted my family who loved the Southern California sun and took them to rural Texas, so hopefully they still love me for doing that to them!” he laughs. “Jokes aside, it has been a great transition, actually. We really enjoy it out here and the team at Nutrabolt has been amazing.” The move into sports nutrition was an added bonus. Asked if this was a career he had always sought out, Bauer replies: “It wasn’t a natural career choice for me. I became interested in this space when travelling during my consultancy work, which

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AN AMAZING PARTNERSHIP

In the beginning, before Nutrabolt was called Nutrabolt, and even before C4 was the hottest pre-workout product in the known universe… Nutrabolt needed a manufacturing partner. When they first approached Genysis Brand Solutions for an estimate, the projected production volumes were less than the minimum order quantities at Genysis. That was then.

This is now. After working together for years, today Genysis delivers millions of units of C4 each quarter with an over 95% on-time delivery performance. Over 95%. This amazing partnership is the result of world class vision, combined with true leadership and manufacturing excellence. Together, Nutrabolt achieves incredible results with Genysis Brand Solutions’ Four Week Program to consistently deliver incredibly high volumes of product, on time, every time. “Our secret is simple.” said Jeff Reynolds, CEO of Genysis, “We have learned that the only way to produce truly amazing results for a partner like Nutrabolt, is to build relationships that allow both sides to invest in our mutual success. With that type of commitment, we can do incredible things.”

across the USA are coming tothe usapplication Brand Solutions pioneered G enysis of LEAN manufacturing techniques in the to increase distribution, such is the nutritional supplement industry. Genysis was able to greatly reduce product fulfillment lead-times demand for the products,” he says. and can now deliver high-quality finished goods (from POdon’t to fulfillment) little as down four weeks. “We have in toasknock the doors, they are already open. We have added several brands to the portfolio, including FitJoy protein bars last year, which has now put us in the quarter billion-dollar range. We have also just completed our acquisition of the Scivation brand which

Shayne Howell, Chief Revenue Officer of Genysis added, “Our brand partners range from the largest sports nutrition companies, like Nutrabolt---to organic health food companies and niche retailers. A s we develop strategic partnerships with our clients, we essentially know what we need to be ready to produce before the order comes in. That ability to anticipate demand, with a relentless focus on quality, allows us to consistently deliver high-quality products, on-time, everytime.” G enysis Brand Solutions is delighted to partner with such an amazing company as Nutrabolt, and is thrilled to begives a part of success. Genysis ustheir market Brand Solutions is a customer-centric, turn-key powder manufacturer in Salt Lake City, UT. leadershipbased in Branch Our teams specialize in delivering best-in-class Chain Amino Acidssupplements as well.” from new powdered nutritional product formulation and flavoring, all the way pr Nutrabolt’s other brand is through sourcing, cGMP testing, blending, packaging, Royal Sport LTD, aand six-product logistics services.

sports nutrition brand available only at GNC franchise stores. While it was certainly an exciting time for Bauer to arrive in August 2015, he recognised the relentlessness of the growth would not be sustainable without a solid structure. “What I saw was a supply chain that was pretty frantic. Everyone was super

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involved living out of a suitcase and using hotel gyms. “I hadn’t worked with these sports nutrition products before but had been exposed to them and been a consumer, which adds an extra element of excitement. We also have a beautiful state of the art gym on-site, which is stocked with all of our products, so we are consumers and users too.” Growing pains Bauer arrived at a company in the middle of a growth spirt. Formed in 2002, the business was set up to help smaller supplement shops source affordable products, leading to the formation of the brand Cellucor. This remains the most important and successful Nutrabolt range, comprising industry leading products for pre- and post-workout, amino acids, protein, weight loss and testosterone. Current CEO Doss Cunningham arrived in 2004 as a part time accountant, buying out one of the two founding partners in 2007 before lifelong friend Manish Patel and he partnered to acquire the remainder of the business in 2008. It was from here the business began to increase revenues above the $10 million mark, the preworkout market in particular helping it to become more profitable. In 2014, MidOcean Partners invested in a minority share and have proven invaluable in providing leadership and driving more aggressive growth. Bauer arrived shortly after. “The interesting thing for me is that the retailers

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AN AMAZING PARTNERSHIP

Shayne Howell, Chief Revenue Officer of Genysis added, “Our brand partners range from the largest sports nutrition companies, like Nutrabolt---to organic health food companies and niche retailers. A s we develop strategic partnerships with our clients, we essentially know what we need to be ready to produce before the order comes in. That ability to anticipate demand, with a relentless focus on quality, allows us to consistently deliver high-quality products, on-time, everytime.” G enysis Brand Solutions is delighted to partner with such an amazing company as Nutrabolt, and is thrilled to be a part of their success. Genysis Brand Solutions is a customer-centric, turn-key powder manufacturer based in Salt Lake City, UT. Our teams specialize in delivering best-in-class powdered nutritional supplements from new product formulation and flavoring, all the way pr through sourcing, cGMP testing, blending, packaging, and logistics services.

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focused on how do I get tomorrow’s order out of the door, so there was nobody with the luxury of taking a step back and observing. “I walked into Doss’s office and said it’s crazy down there, and that I needed 60 days to come up with a strategy. He gave me that luxury and the team and I sat down and came up with a supply chain strategy for the first time in the company’s history.” Execution The 60-day evaluation told Bauer

and his team two things: that Nutrabolt needed to be smarter at supply chain planning and continue to drive cost optimisation. The following 12-18 months saw the plan put into action and has seen some phenomenal results, not least when looking at inventory figures. While inventory rates have been cut in half, fill rates have risen from 76 to a little over 96 percent in the latest

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month. “That is my favourite statistic,” Bauer adds. “When I first came in there was a very strange dynamic. I got a call from our President saying inventory turns are below two, and then had about 10 calls from sales leads saying they didn’t have the product to fill customer orders. This didn’t make any sense, and goes to the heart of the supply chain planning.” In Bauer’s words, it was time to “stem the bleeding”. Investing in the supply chain planning software solution Logility has proven to really help stabilize Nutrabolt’s supply chain, despite Bauer’s trepidation at recommending such a significant investment so early into his tenure.

“I think the willingness to change was what I was most worried about before going into this,” he continues. “I pitched this only three months into being employed and was scared to death at the prospect – I was walking in as the new guy advocating a very expensive piece of software. “But Doss was so supportive and we got on the phone to the MidOcean folks and they supported the idea straight away. My team on the demand planning and supply planning side were also super excited, especially having lived the pain. The willingness to change was emphatic, it has been a huge learning curve.”

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Strength in suppliers The effectiveness of Logility becomes even greater as key partners look into adopting the solution. Indeed, the smooth functioning of the Nutrabolt machine is dependent on collaboration with third parties, from freight companies and 3PLs to manufacturers

and even their suppliers. “This makes integration and partnership absolutely critical to any success,” adds Bauer. “The inventory improvements we talked about would never have been possible without collaboration with our partners. It is about transparency and closeness.”

“There was a time when we would be afraid to give a partner company too much data

– now I’m pushing to give them more” – Casey Bauer, Chief Operating Officer, Nutrabolt

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Such close relations with production partners is especially critical given the move to turnkey manufacturing, which means Nutrabolt simply purchases finished products and holds no component inventory. Bauer points to a partnership with Genysis Brand Solutions as a case in point. “We have monthly meetings that switch between our location in Texas and their location in Utah,” Bauer continues. “We make sure we meet face to face to add to our daily conversations. We have scorecards and metrics, talk about what’s working well and what’s not working well, and discuss how we can become more integrated and gain greater visibility. “There was a time when we would be afraid to give a partner company too much data – now I’m pushing to give them more. I appreciate massively the transparency that exists between ourselves and the Genysis team, and we are now at a point where we are realising joint cost savings. We have even been able to cut lead times in half on key products and get products to customers significantly faster – this is because they have that visibility and are benefiting from the collaboration on the forecasts.” Moving forward in 2017 and beyond, integration of the end-to-end supply chain will become a major priority. Bauer’s ideal state is one where all manufacturers and partners,

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and even their suppliers, can access central portals, offering 100 percent visibility and tying the whole supply chain together. He is also looking to add to Nutrabolt’s international supplier network, a move which will localise production and decrease shipping costs. Further still, the COO is targeting redundancy in the supply chain, mitigating risk in single source supplies.

“Innovation is another area we want to continue working with the likes of Genysis on, getting them into the process earlier to tap their wealth of expertise,” Bauer adds. “These are the people working with the key materials day in and day out.” New channels, happy customers As product formulas evolve, so do the channels in which Nutrabolt sells through. Although specialist retailers remain the company’s

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largest segment of business, some of the country’s retail giants are opening doors to orders en masse. “Amazon has been a tremendous partner for us and we’ve had an amazing growth trajectory,” Bauer says. “We’ve just added Justin Jackson to our team, who is our SVP of Consumer Direct, overseeing our personal websites and the Amazon account. He is a former Amazon executive and has brought some massive improvements to the company.” Indeed, Bauer is convinced

that Nutrabolt can help to mature the product ranges seen in the likes of Walmart and other large supermarkets. “You see a lot of protein but not a lot else, so our C4 Sport line has been hugely successful in filling these spaces. Now we’ve started expanding our offering and the advent of FitJoy has allowed us to create a functional foods brand, which is specialty focused now can have reaches into other consumers, which is exciting.”

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Different buyers bring with them wider audience of fitness enthusiasts, different supply chain nuances, it is vital to convert as many of them as and Bauer points out some of the possible into repeat customers. Central challenges associated with this to this is meaningful engagement. diversification. For instance, selling “If you pick up one of our products it through Amazon has demanded has a 1-800 number on the label,” says a whole new stickering process, Bauer. “If you call that number you’re while precision has become even not routed to a call centre somewhere more of a must with else, you are sent delivery schedules. trough to a group of Bauer explains: Nutrabolt folks we have “When you sell into downstairs who will the likes of Walmart answer questions and you are dealing with send handwritten notes extremely lean supply back to the consumer. chains so it is vital “We had one recently, to have consistency which was the first of demand. You can problem we’ve had – Casey Bauer, Chief Operating get fined by Walmart on direct to consumer Officer, Nutrabolt if you ship a product for a long time, where early – they don’t two products went want extra inventory on their books, to the wrong people. Our warehouse nor do they want to run out. This immediately got on it and dispatched means we have to add an extra layer the right products, and one of the of sophistication to our supply chain.” customers even got the replacement Challenges granted, expansion into and heard from us before they got new sales channels has opened up home to see that they had been access to Nutrabolt’s product ranges sent the wrong order. We really to a far greater demographic across believe in that close connection and the USA. And having reached out to a doing right by our customers.”

“When you sell into the likes of Walmart you are dealing with extremely lean supply chains so it is vital to have consistency of demand”

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Happy horizons Bauer’s ambitions will not be realised without a fully motivated and energised supply chain team, something which has evidently come to the fore over recent months and is ultimately leading to high levels of customer satisfaction. “Compared to the company as a whole, the supply chain group was in the lower half of the spectrum when it came to employee engagement,” he explains. “Part of that was because we were asked to almost do the impossible given how tremendous the growth was – people were scrambling to get products out of the door.”

However, thanks to the installation of aforementioned new processes and systems, the supply chain group is a much happier place to be and will continue to expertly to serve colleagues and customers. “A lot of our improvements in this respect have fed back into employee happiness and engagement,” Bauer continues, “but there have been some simpler things like recognition which has helped greatly. “For a supply chain person, the best compliment you can receive is from a sales team ringing you up and saying good job, thanks for getting my order fulfilled.”

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