Woodstock vitamin company seeing results with focus on healthy living

WOODSTOCK – For most of the past 26 years, a little-known dietary and vitamin supplement company has kept a low-profile in an industry that has attracted its share of critics.

But Ortho Molecular Products is working diligently to change its visibility and the perceptions around the industry with a philosophy built around efficacy, education and healthy living.

And the company – headquartered in Woodstock since 2006 – is beginning to see major results, President Aaron Bartz said.

Results such as double-digit growth drew the attention of the national trade publication Nutrition Business Journal, which recognized the Woodstock company earlier this year as one of the fastest growing supplement companies in 2014.

“We aren’t a new company, so to be growing that fast after 26 years is significant,” Bartz said. “I think it really is because we make solid products. We help doctors understand how to use those products with their patients.”

Operating a plant and lab near Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Ortho Molecular Products manufactures and distributes about 150 supplement products to alternative medicine practitioners and specialty physicians across the country.

The company’s sales representatives are based out of its corporate offices on the southeastern edge of Woodstock. The sales team is tasked with educating physicians on how to properly prescribe the company’s products to patients, along with connecting physicians to resources on healthy living.

Unlike over-the-counter supplements offered at retailers such as GNC, the local company purposely partners with physicians, who have the knowledge to guide patients on how to properly use supplements.

Ortho Molecular Products typically deals with physicians who will spend 30 minutes with patients assessing their lifestyle, diet, sleeping habits and daily stresses, Bartz said.

It’s a company philosophy at a time when chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, are trending upward in the U.S.

People looking to lose weight often don’t realize exercise and proper eating are two main ways to prevent those chronic diseases, Bartz said.

“We really help doctors with resources that help educate their patients on lifestyle changes,” he said. “At the end of the day, if patients don’t make lifestyle changes, a supplement only does so much. I can’t take a supplement, sit on the couch, eat a bag of potato chips and think I’m healthy. There isn’t a good connection there.”

The market seemingly has responded to the company’s focus on quality and education.

Seeing significant growth over the past year, Ortho Molecular Products has begun looking at international markets for its products, Bartz said.

With a focus on efficacy, the company makes mainstream supplements such as fish oil and multivitamins, along with unique products such as Natural D-Hist, which helps alleviate sinus allergies.

“What we want to see is the transformation of medicine. We think medicine is broke, especially in the United States,” Bartz said. “Medicine in the U.S. doesn’t do well with chronic diseases, like diabetes, because we don’t look at the root causes. A lot of those diseases are driven by diet, nutrition and exercise.”