CRN signs eight new members, including C&D and P.J. Noyes

WASHINGTON — The Council for Responsible Nutrition on Tuesday announced the addition of eight new members, including voting members Church & Dwight and P.J. Noyes Co., along with associate members AIBMR Life Sciences, Bell Advisory Services, Biofortis, Creative Flavor Concepts and Nutrasource Diagnostics.

In 2012, Church & Dwight entered the dietary supplement space in a big way with its acquisition of Avid Health, the manufacturer of gummy vitamins sold under the L’il Critters and Vitafusion brands. "This category is more than $5 billion in size and is one of the fastest growing categories of consumer package goods, with a 5% to 6% historical steady growth rate," C&D chairman and CEO James Craigie told analysts in November. "Avid’s L'il Critters brand is the No. 1 brand of children’s gummy vitamins. Avid’s Vitafusion brand is the fastest growing brand in the adult gummy vitamins. Overall, Avid holds a two-to-one share advantage relative to the No. 2 gummy vitamin competitor," he said. 

Craigie sees growth opportunities across the line, especially in adult multivitamins. "Gummy vitamins represent about 58% of all children vitamin sales today, with only about 3% of the adult vitamin category," he noted. "However, the total adult vitamin category is about 19 times the size of the kids’ vitamins, or about $5 billion. So we are confident there is a huge opportunity to grow the gummy form in adult vitamins." 

CRN also signed voting member P.J. Noyes Co., a contract manufacturer and packager of dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The company, which has been operating for more than 140 years, produces products in the forms of tablets, capsules, liquids, creams, lotions and ointments. 

P.J. Noyes' latest contracted products were featured in the film "The Bourne Legacy." In the movie,green and blue pills provide their black-ops users with “enhanced physical and mental abilities” — outside of Hollywood circles, there were placebos, the company noted. "[It's] more evidence of our team’s commitment to quality and ability to manufacture pharmaceuticals with a wide variety of applications," wrote account manager Kim Daly, in a company blog. 

AIBMR Life Sciences was founded in 1978 and is a full-service natural products and functional foods consulting company. Bell Advisory Services is a consultancy that specializes in business development. Biofortis is a global contract research organization. Creative Flavor Concepts is an expert in product development, product commercialization and flavor creation for beverages, nutritional supplements and functional foods. And Nutrasource Diagnostics is a contract research organization and consulting firm.