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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
How did an attorney and a hospital administrator become owners of a very large, sophisticated manufacturing company that is a leader in its field? I'll tell you how.
I loved hearing the story of Deseret Laboratories in St. George. Company Vice President Mark Gubler told me about its humble beginnings in 1983 when his brother, CEO Scott Gubler, laid claim to 1,500 acres of land containing gypsum.
As the brothers sought a way to use the gypsum in a cost-effective manner, they discovered the calcium-rich mineral could be used as filler in fortified foods and pharmaceutical products. They began granulating and compressing the gypsum into tablets for a pharmaceutical company.
While gypsum is no longer used in the company's products, Deseret Labs has evolved into a full-scale manufacturer of nutraceutical products and over-the-counter drugs. You can still see ribbons of white gypsum rock from the company's 130,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fort Pierce Industrial Park.
As I listened to Mark talk about "agglomeration" and "instatization," I must admit I scratched my head and questioned, "What does this company really do?" Well, Deseret Labs provides the food, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries with tablets, capsules and powders. The pills, medicines and supplements many of us take may very well have been prepared and packaged by Deseret Labs.
Company employees take the products all the way from the research and development stages to shipping them to major-label distributors. The company even manufactures some of its own machinery.
At a recent awards ceremony, Deseret Laboratories was honored by the Small Business Administration as the "Exporter of the Year" for this region. That's a great accomplishment.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
