Vitaquest is answering the people’s quest for new health
Away from the spotlight of the CKHH big four (Ports, Retail, Infrastructure and Telecommunications) are some fascinating science-driven companies within the family that promote health and wellness. CK Life Sciences’ Vitaquest is one such company. It makes a wide range of companies’ products healthier by providing them with the supplements they need to answer the latest demands of consumers. Those products help millions to be their best selves, healthwise.
The traditional extras to a diet such as vitamins and minerals are now being joined with a constantly expanding range of health ingredients that speak to how people think about their health – an ever-moving target. Some ingredients are defined by their source (for example, popular medicinal mushrooms) and some by their category of function (think probiotics and nootropics). The cutting edge often becomes mainstream in time, and Vitaquest has dedicated teams that are tracking health discoveries and market trends, ensuring it leads in supplying supplements that become “hero ingredients”.
“Hero ingredients” are those that would, in other marketing speak, perhaps be called “category killers”; products that answer many needs and become must-haves for consumers for a short or sometimes long period. Past examples include vitamin C and niacinamide (B3); tomorrow’s champions may be so old that they’ve been forgotten, or they may be completely novel.
Vitaquest has dedicated teams that are tracking health discoveries and market trends, ensuring it leads in supplying supplements that become “hero ingredients”.
For sure, a lifetime diet of antioxidants may be thought to reduce the incidence of cancer later in life. But isn’t it even better if they can also make you more attractive next week? Anti-inflammatories such as certain vitamins (A, C, E) and minerals (Mg, Ca, Se, Zn, Cu, Fe) contribute to overall health, but it’s more compelling to younger consumers if a product can connect them to how they look on their Instagram feed. The line can be very direct; supplements with structural proteins such as collagen, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and hyaluronic acid, along with B vitamins, can enhance the matrix of skin and hair.
Health-promotion ingredients, often targeted at the long-term impact of ageing, still sell well (such as lutein to protect against eye degeneration), but the growth is often in things that have an impact on the here and now. Beauty from within and mental health (mood and smarts) are two new categories on the rise.
Beauty isn’t just skin-deep
Beauty from within is the philosophy that states that an attractive appearance isn’t crafted by makeup or fixed with topical preparations (such as moisturiser for dry skin), but rather that beauty arises from a holistic state of good health that results, for example, in bright eyes and lustrous hair. It was earlier thought it was sufficient to be generally healthy. Nowadays, in marketing and in influencer conversations on social media, there is a direct connection being made between internal health and external beauty.
The once-mighty generic multivitamin is quickly being supplemented with age- and gender-specific products.
Feed your brain
Two separate categories have to do with your brain – mental functioning (smarts and focus) and mental “health” (connected to persistent moods like depressive states).
But the times they are always a-changin’ and Vitaquest is leading that change. People have become more aware that their bodily functions differ over time and have needs specific to their gender and unique makeup. Their desire for more personalised health has grown with that awareness. The once-mighty generic multivitamin is quickly being supplemented with age- and gender-specific products.
More natural promoters of brain functioning, known as nootropics, have become popular. Old-school caffeine and gingko are making way for new formulations. Creatine is a product popular with athletes but is now being used to promote mental energy and focus without producing the jittery feeling associated with caffeine, for example. Caffeine is still probably the most widely consumed stimulant worldwide for its short-term energy-boosting properties, but combining it with L-theanine can also reduce the shaky, unfocused effect that caffeine has on many people.
The chemistry in your head is influenced by what you eat, and supplements are a part of it.
The chemistry in your head is influenced by what you eat, and supplements are a part of it. Rhodiola, omega-3, B vitamins, probiotics and magnesium (a super-hot mineral in 2023) are all thought to improve mental health and are finding their way into a wider range of products.
The health company behind the health products
It’s sometimes push and sometimes pull for Vitaquest, in working with their commercial business customers. Their customers sometimes create an idea for a product formulation and its presentation (for example, powders, tablets, capsules – the possibilities are endless) and then collaborate with Vitaquest. Sometimes Vitaquest, being on top of the trends, suggests combinations or formulations to customers to help them expand their product ranges.
Vitaquest has been doing this for over 45 years, and their ability to respond to the pull from customers and to gently push them to suggest new hits keeps them at the forefront of the health maintenance business. So next time you acquire your vitamin-enhanced food, “made for you” multivitamin or mental energy booster, keep in mind it’s likely to be Vitaquest empowering the new and better you!