Q&A: How Mason Vitamins is ensuring products stay in stock
Chuck Tacl, vice president of sales at Mason Vitamins, said that employees at the Miami Lakes, Fla.-based company are doing all they can to help maintain the supply chain and help retailers ensure products reach store shelves in a timely fashion.
He spoke with Drug Store News about what the company is doing during these hectic times as retailers and consumers ask for more information about products they believe can help them stay as healthy as possible during the pandemic.
Drug Store News: Tell us about your experience at Mason Vitamins, thus far, in regards to maintaining the supply chain with retailers during the crisis.
Chuck Tacl: It has been a huge challenge for everyone, especially our employees. It is our people who make our company successful, and everyone has stayed committed to our parent company, Ito En’s, message of “customer first.” Many of our employees have volunteered to help and are offering assistance to fill certain roles, enabling us to serve our customers. Raw material and logistics price increases continue to be a challenge, but our focus is to serve the customer first.
DSN: What is your business implementing to help retailers and consumers?
CT: Every customer will continue to receive our products, but there have been two to three week delays related to logistics or product availability.
We have always had extremely strict quality protocols and, yes, even if third party raw material or final product testing takes an additional four to five days, we prefer to stay the course. We know that our clients appreciate our transparency.
DSN: What are some of the ways that Mason Vitamins can help retailers?
CT: While we may not be the prime vendor brand at many retailers’ vitamin planograms, due to supplier out of stocks, we have been able to assist as a temporary supplier. We are a very flexible and nimble company, so it is easy to support a retailer’s urgent needs with one of our complimentary items until their original vendor is back in stock.
DSN: What do you suggest retailers develop specific to the vitamin category?
CT: It is so important to continue to educate the consumer about the supplement category.
With the recent trends, the category is growing significantly and trial and awareness of the supplement category is at an all-time high. Mason Vitamins created symptom category signage (i.e., women’s health, heart health, immune) over 18 years ago to educate the consumer. We discontinued immune a few years later because the consumer did not understand that health condition.
As we are experiencing this pandemic, we brought back the immune category callout at shelf. This callout is resonating with the consumer, and we believe retailers and other brands will reevaluate their strategies due to recent category trends and get there, too