Practical guidance for brands sourcing supplement manufacturing.
The sequence matters more than the individual steps. Three decisions belong before you contact a factory, and two decisions cause most of the delays that follow. Here is the order that works, and where first-time brands lose weeks.
White label means putting your brand on a formula that already exists; full custom means developing one that does not. Most first-time brands should start near the white label end and earn their way toward custom. Here is what separates the three, and what each costs you in time.
Minimum order quantity is not a sales policy you can argue down. It is three separate floors — equipment batch size, raw material purchase units and packaging print runs — and only one of them is negotiable. Knowing which is which is how you get a lower number.
Gummies, capsules, softgels, tablets and powders are not interchangeable wrappers around the same formula. Each one limits how much active it can carry, what it costs to make and how small a first run can be. Here is how they compare, with figures from our own catalogue.