“I’ve tried my hardest to bribe my chef, but my team has been clever and hired someone who not only is not bribable but who chases me around the house and makes sure I eat what he’s cooked, and he lays out my vitamin pills and supplements in front of me so I can’t ‘forget’ to take them.”‑ Usain St. Leo Bolt, the Fastest Man in the World.
In the above quote, Lightning Bolt has rightly pointed out the significance of vitamin pills and supplements in today’s world. It has become crucial to have the right balance of food and supplements in order to get the proper nutrition.
Catering to the ever-evolving need of the nutraceutical space, Gelpell AG, with its 17 years of experience, has stayed the course of providing high-quality capsule processing and the packaging of food supplements and nutrients.
Spearheaded by a phenomenon power couple, Tomas and Kristina Edvinsson, GM and Owner, the company is dedicated to the field of contract manufacturing as well as human health and nutrition.
In an interview with Insights Care, Tomas and Kristina elaborate on the USPs of Gelpell AG and how they have provided the nutraceutical niche with an innovative product, the Gelpell® technology.
To learn more, delve into their Insightful interview:
Please describe Gelpell AG in detail.
For over 17 years, Gelpell AG has stood for high-quality capsules and formula processing and the packaging of food supplements and nutrients. Our owner-operated company is based in the Swiss town of Gähwil, south of Lake Constance. We supply partners worldwide from here quickly and reliably.
Being the fourth generation of entrepreneurs dedicated to the field of contract manufacturing as well as human health and nutrition, we have built know-how and competence that is unique to this market. We understand the production side and the issues and difficulties that our clients encounter and are diligently working on optimizing our customer experience by providing excellent customer service and products of the highest quality with flexibility.
We have an in-house development team that is here to help you develop or optimize your product to stay with the newest regulatory conformity and trends. We constantly strive to become better, and with these efforts, we can now also offer vegan soft capsules and a titanium dioxide-free colour range for soft capsules.
What was your inspiration behind venturing into the nutrition and supplement niche?
The food supplement business is a fast-paced sector with strong continuous growth. This we have followed and can be seen in the US for many years and has also swapped over to Europe, a healthy and conscious lifestyle has become mandatory to most people. As the human population grows older and faces an aging population, the importance of healthy aging and longevity is omnipresent.
It is also a sector that allows creativity in formulations, finding new ingredients, and offering a better service. The close connection between supplements and pharma makes this market, however, very static and less innovative than it could be. It is an industry that holds as a center the health and well-being of people and offers a future key industry for an aging population.
Through work experience and family heritage, we had gathered a thorough understanding of the nutritional supplement business; we had an insight knowledge from both the production and brand sides. When the opportunity presented itself to take over Gelpell AG, which was a small lab with an innovative product the Gelpell® technology, strong galenical know-how, and good infrastructure, we decided to take it.
What are the USPs that highlight Gelpell AG as a trusted nutrition supplement provider?
In previous years, we saw that many investment companies have bought up the main players of soft capsule contract manufacturers in Europe, capacities for production were very limited, lead times were six months plus, and MOQ batch sizes were hard to meet for small to mid-cap brands. There was no flexibility or creativity. At the same time, the barrier of entry is incredibly high and challenging.
Brands need their capacities to educate the end consumer and marketing, creating a successful brand. To do so with focus, it is important to have a trusted and solution-oriented contract manufacturer -that is what our goal is at Gelpell AG.
Until today we have never left this focus; as we advance, we are continuously working hard to offer the most flexible and innovative services. Having launched vegan soft capsules to meet the demand for a vegetarian solution, as well as our quick response to the EFSA regulatory changes of Titanium dioxide used for coloring with our titanium-dioxide free color range, even throughout the Covid and now Ukrainian crisis, our clients have always been informed and were able to rely on our high quality and flexibility to react to changing demands in the market.
As a full-service provider, Gelpell guarantees quality from start to finish. Purchasing the ingredient of trusted, audited European suppliers, mixing, developing, and producing the soft and hard capsules or Gelpell® in-house, and packaging them in blisters or jars at the same factory guarantees the highest standard of quality control possible. The client has one Partner who does it all, a unique feature in the market.
Brief us about the nutritional supplements that Gelpell AG offers to its clients.
Our services are personalized and include but are not limited to:
- product development
- Supply chain of high quality and safe ingredients
- production of soft capsules filled with oil or highly complex suspensions
- Filling of hard capsules
- GELPELL® nutrient beads
- Blister and folding box packaging
- Jar packaging
- High-quality control
- Support with registration and documentation
- High export and Import competence
What are the immersive benefits of the nutritional supplements that you provide to your clients?
Our highly innovative clean label technology, the Gelpell®– the unique technology that is free of additives, provides proven features such as higher bioavailability and stability to highly oxidative products. An elegant dosage form that allows the combination of interacting substances such as Vit C and Iron to offer the best in many ways.
Soft capsules offer a better bio-availability in the original material than the powdered state of aggregation. It offers a stable, closed-off, and optimal environment for sensitive ingredients or oils, as well as an easy and smells neutral delivery dosage. Our Vegan soft capsule now also offers the perfect solution for Vegetarian or Vegan opportunities.
Hard capsules have better absorption than tablets and offer a safe, protected environment for powders, with vegan, halal or organic features at a low cost and flexible MOQ.
Our Blister and Jar packaging service offer you a one-stop-shop opportunity that guarantees the highest quality and flexibility.
What were the initial challenges while venturing into the nutrition industry, and concerning the current scenario, what are the challenges now?
Production in itself is a great challenge; production of food supplements is also a matter of great trust. Due to this, customers are very change-resistant and skeptical of newcomers to the market. Gaining the trust of key players in the market took a long time.
In the current worldwide scenario, a reliable and continuous supply chain is a great focus of ours to continue offering the service we are known for; this requires even more flexibility.
What would be your advice to the aspirants who are willing to venture into the niche of nutritional supplements?
Study the market well; it is full of opportunities! But don’t be idealistic as there are a lot of hurdles, starting with the many different regulatory ones. Each country, even within the EU, has different rules.
Where do you envision Gelpell AG eventually, and how do you plan to embrace the changes happening in your industry?
We already see a trend of seeking closer to home production facilities, and the honest relationship of doing business is becoming more and more critical. As an owner-led company, we are aware of the great trust put into contract manufacturers, and we feel this will continue giving us wind underneath our wings for future healthy growth.
One responsibility I feel we should not exclude ourselves from in the future and want to offer solutions proactively is sustainability. Reducing plastic and aluminium waste will be a project for the near- and long-term future the entire industry will need to tackle. Gelpell is evaluating different possibilities to contribute our part to this extremely important topic.
The Phenomenon Power Couple
Tomas and Kristina met at the Business School of Lausanne in 2006, he was completing his master’s in Business and Administration, whereas she was in her Bachelor’s. After graduating with Magna cum Laude, Tomas worked in the financial services sector before continuing a general manager position at Dr Dünner an international food supplement brand in Switzerland.
Kristina continued her master’s studies in London, after which she led a Modern art Gallery in Zürich. Once Tomas and Kristina married and started a family, they wanted to combine their strengths and visions to work together as entrepreneurs. Kristina was born into the fourth generation of contract manufacturing and human health nutrition provider, and Tomas, having collected strong know-how in the nutrition field, it became clear that this would be the path to take.
