U. S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
March 1999

Section 3
Facilities and Firms

Currently available estimates of the number of facilities and firms that supply raw materials and manufacture DS products cover a broad range. The Nutrition Business Journal estimates that in 1997, 150 raw material manufacturers and over 1,000 growers and harvesters supplied raw materials to the industry and 1,050 manufacturers produced finished DS products (see Figure 1-1). The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) estimates that between 800 and 1,400 raw material suppliers and manufacturers serve the market. These estimates are similar to the estimate of over 1,100 DS raw material and manufacturing firms that are members of the five major DS trade organizations. This may be an overstatement to the extent that some firms belong to multiple organizations but an understatement to the extent that some firms belong to none of the organizations.

RTI compiled information on plants and firms in the DS industry in the Dietary Supplement Enhanced Establishment Database (DS-EED). To the extent that data are available, the records contain information such as name and location of facilities, DS product type, facility type (manufacturer, ingredient supplier, repackager/relabeler/encapsulator, importer, exporter), other product types manufactured, sales, employment, SIC codes, NAICS and international codes. The sources of this information include the following:

• American Herbal Products Association 1998-1999 Membership Directory and Resource Guide;
• Council for Responsible Nutrition 1998 Membership Directory;
• Natural Food Merchandiser's Retailer Purchasing Guide, August 1998;
• InfoSeek Company Capsules (Hoover's Corporation), downloaded February 1998;
• Natural Products Expo West, Show Directory, March 1998;
• FDA's Official Establishment Inventory;
• Harris InfoSource, Inc.'s U.S. Manufacturers Database, electronic file received February 1998; and
• Thomas Food Industry Register on the Internet, downloaded January-February 1999.

After deleting duplicate records from these sources, 2,026 facilities remained in the DS-EED. Of these 2,026 facilities, 1,978 are located in the United States, 42 are located in Canada, and 6 are located in Puerto Rico.

In Section 3.1, we describe the characteristics of the facilities in the DS-EED. In Section 3.2, we describe financial data for the DS industry.

3.1 Facility Characteristics

The facilities in the DS-EED are characterized by facility type, product type, and other products produced. Each of these characteristics is described below.

The facility type indicates whether a facility manufactures, distributes, imports, exports, repackages, relabels, or encapsulates DS products or whether a facility provides raw ingredients to the industry. Table 3-1 provides frequencies for each facility type. Because a facility may be involved in more than one activity, the frequencies add up to greater than the total number of facilities in the database.

Table 3-1. DS Facility Type Frequencies

Facility Type	Number of Facilities	Percentage of Facilities
Manufacturer	1,555	78.6%
Input supplier	316	16.0%
Repackager, relabeler, or encapsulator	347	17.5%
Distributor	268	13.5%
Importer	209	10.6%
Exporter	340	17.2%
Source: Dietary Supplement Enhanced Establishment Database (DS-EED), as obtained March 24, 1999.

More than 78 percent of the facilities in the DS-EED are manufacturers of DS products. Sixteen percent of the facilities provide raw ingredients; 17 percent repack, relabel, or encapsulate products; and 13 percent distribute products. More plants export products (17 percent) versus import products (11 percent).

The product type indicates the type of DS produced or handled by each facility. Table 3-2 provides frequencies for each facility type. Vitamins and minerals, which are grouped together because facilities nearly always produce both in combination, are produced or handled by more than half (54 percent) of the facilities. Facilities that produce or handle herbals and botanicals follow at 43 percent. Herbal and botanical extracts, which are a subset of herbals and botanicals, are produced or handled by 14 percent of facilities. Teas follow at 10 percent, amino acids at 9 percent, proteins at 4 percent, and animal extracts at 2 percent. Concentrates, metabolites, and constituents are produced or handled at 4 percent of plants, but this figure may not represent the true total because the industry directories used to compile the DS-EED did not provide sufficient

Table 3-2. DS Product Type Frequencies

Product Type	Number of Facilitiesa	Percentage of Facilities
Vitamins and Minerals	1,066	53.9%
Herbals and Botanicals	850	43.0%
Herbal and Botanical Extracts	273	13.8%
Animal Extracts	34	1.7%
Amino Acids	186	9.4%
Proteins	87	4.4%
Tea	200	10.1%
Concentrates, Metabolites, and Constituents	80	4.0%
Other Supplements	602	30.4%
a The record source for 372 facilities did not indicate any product types. Source: Dietary Supplement Enhanced Establishment Database (DS-EED), as obtained March 24, 1999.

detail to identify these products. Similarly, nearly 19 percent of facility records indicate no product types, which is also due to insufficient detail in the industry directories. Table 3-3 further breaks out product type by facility type for comparison across facility types.

Other products produced indicates whether a facility produces foods and/or drugs in addition to dietary supplements. Table 3-4 provides frequencies of facilities producing each of these other product types. Approximately 21 percent of facilities also produce foods and 17 percent also produce drugs.

3.2 DS Financial Data

Future versions of the DS-EED will likely contain more information on sales and employment at individual facilities than is available from industry directories. Once this information becomes available, it will be possible to characterize DS facilities based on sales volumes and employment. In addition, parent company information can be used to categorize DS companies as small or large.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (1997) size definitions for the most relevant SIC codes are the following:

• 2075 Soybean Oil Mills: < 500 employees
• 2099 Food Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified: < 500 employees
• 2819 Industrial Organic Chemicals, Not Elsewhere Classified: < 1,000 employees
• 2833 Medicinal Chemicals and Botanical Products: < 750 employees

Table 3-3. Frequencies of DS Product Types Produced at Each Facility Type^a

	Manu-facturer	Input Supplier	Repackager/ Relabeler/ Encapsulator	Distributor	Importer	Exporter	Number of Facilities
Vitamins and Minerals	857	147	198	171	98	197	1,066
Herbals & Botanicals	647	184	237	186	140	198	850
Herbal and Botanical Extracts	209	115	85	53	59	71	273
Animal Extracts	28	3	5	6	5	8	34
Amino Acids	153	32	39	28	23	49	186
Teas	156	46	53	43	41	43	200
Proteins	80	14	16	12	10	19	87
Concentrates, Metabolites, and Constituents	67	17	26	11	8	17	80
Other Supplements	528	88	106	53	61	108	602
Number of Facilities	1,555	316	347	268	209	340
a Facilities may be of multiple types and may produce multiple products. Source: Dietary Supplement Enhanced Establishment Database (DS-EED), as obtained March 24, 1999.

Table 3-4. Frequencies of Other Products Produced at DS Facilities

Other Products	Number of Facilities	Percentage of Facilities
Foods	414	20.9%
Drugs	339	17.1%
Source: Dietary Supplement Enhanced Establishment Database (DS-EED), as obtained March 24, 1999.

• 2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations: < 750 employees
• 2869 Industrial Organic Chemicals, Not Elsewhere Classified: < 1,000 employees
• 2899 Chemicals and Chemical Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified: < 500 employees

Based on these definitions, it is likely that the majority of firms in the DS industry will be considered small.

The Nutrition Business Journal provides sales information for the largest DS manufacturers. These sales data include only supplements rather than sales of all products produced by each company. Table 3-5 lists supplement sales for the top 15 manufacturers. Additional information on the facilities owned by these companies is available in the DS-EED.

Table 3-5. Top 15 Dietary Supplement Manufacturers, 1997

Manufacturer	Location	Supplement Sales ($ million)
Leiner Health Products	Carson, CA	425
Pharmavite	San Fernando, CA	340
American Home Products	Madison, NJ	325
Rexall Sundown	Boca Raton, FL	291
NBTY	Bohemia, NY	281
General Nutrition Companies	Pittsburgh, PA	260
Weider Nutrition Group	Salt Lake City, UT	219
Twin Laboratories	Hauppauge, NY	213
Abbott Labs	Columbus, OH	170
Perrigo	Allegan, MI	152
Solgar Vitamin & Herb Company	Hackensack, NJ	120
Bayer Corporation	Pittsburgh, PA	110
IVC Industries	Freehold, NJ	109
Experimental & Applied Sciences	Golden, CO	108
Nature's Way Products	Springville, UT	100
Source: Nutrition Business International. September 1998. "$23 Billion and Counting: Nutrition Industry Braces for a Competitive Future." 3(9):1-5, 13, 18.

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