A gummy vitamin brand set up by two graduates from the University of Glasgow has just reached £3.5m in revenue.
Founded in 2020 by friends Dr Peter McQuillan and Akil Memishi, with only £70,000 of combined personal savings and no outside investment, Novomins has quickly become one of the fastest-growing nutrition companies in the UK.
The idea came when they were moving house in their final year at uni. Coming across a cupboard in McQuillan's kitchen, crammed with vitamins tablets and capsules, Memishi noticed that 90% of the tubs were either out of date or unfinished.
The pair really took their gym seriously and McQuillan was keen on sports nutrition, so when they later joked about how his student loan could have been better spent, the discussion came around about how this could have been avoided.
They decided the answer was simple - better taste and easier to swallow.
It was a few years later that the pair landed on gummies as a route to delivering delicious, effective nutrition.
Launching in March 2020 they navigated covid lockdown logistics, selling out in a matter of weeks.
Novomins expanded to a further 20 different products, including a children’s range of gummies. After Valerie Stark - a former director at dating app Bumble - joined the team as a director, they moved into gummy supplements aimed at female health.
The gummies contain no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners and are gluten-free, non-GMO and also do not contain chemicals like titanium dioxide, which is often found in gummy-based vitamins.
Chief scientific officer Memishi explained: “Novomins were created with people in mind - it’s those hard-to-swallow joint and magnesium supplements, unpleasant metallic taste of iron supplements and overall burden of remembering to take everything that could potentially cause choking or gagging that made us think of an alternative solution.
“For many the process of taking daily supplements is not something they look forward to,“ he continued, “So, we used our expertise in pharmacology and medicine to create a tasty, yet highly-potent solution for daily vitamins and supplements needs and we are excited to see the most wonderful feedback from the thousands of our customers who find Novomins work for them.”
Chief medical officer McQuillan added: “In two years, our customers have consumed over 11 million of our gummies.
“Our plans to create a delicious blend of potent supplements has now become a public demand as we expand deeper in women’s health and child nutrition.”
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