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Bruce Remund and Jeff Reynolds have a long history together. They grew up as close friends, high school athletic teammates and small-scale entrepreneurs. Their friendship continued through their education at the University of Utah, during two-year missions for the LDS Church and through their graduate schooling. They always wanted to run a business enterprise together but it wasn't until 2005 that the right opportunity arose.
Jeff's brother, Jeremy, had founded a company that specialized in powdered nutritional supplements and foods in 2003. By 2005, the company was facing some operational challenges, so Jeremy approached Jeff about help restructuring it. Jeff agreed, and with Bruce's assistance, decided there was a good opportunity to not only turn things around but to also take the company to a whole new level. This became VMI Nutrition.
Salt Lake City-based VMI Nutrition is a contract manufacture of nutritional supplement powders for roughly 30 name-brand clients whose sales channels include Costco, GNC and various direct-selling networks. The company formulates about 300 products, using upwards of 600 raw ingredients. Protein powder is a major product line, but the company also makes fiber and sports-related powders.
Jeff says there are two basic components to a nutritional powder: a base formula of raw ingredients such as vitamins and proteins and a flavor system. Nutritional ingredients are mostly revealed on the label, but the flavor system is the "secret sauce" that helps differentiate VMI Nutrition from its competitors.
The company is also distinguished by how well versed it is on FDA requirements. This knowledge has been particularly useful in building the company's international presence because they know what ingredients can be used in each market to avoid what Jeff calls "regulatory landmines." This has helped VMI Nutrition build its clientele all over the world, including Europe, Asia, South America, Mexico and Canada.
