It’s Ora for all: This month, Ora Organic launched its 11-product collection of plant-based ingestible products into 783 Vitamin Shoppe locations nationwide.
Ora Organic drew eyeballs and raised eyebrows when two of its co-founders, Will Smelko and Ron Chang appeared on popular entrepreneurial pitch show Shark Tank and passed on one shark’s offer of $375,000 for a 17% stake in the growing company. They were willing to give up only 5% for that amount.
It wasn’t long after its February 2017 television spot that the brand starting courting The Vitamin Shoppe team. “We connected [with] The Vitamin Shoppe leadership to explain the mission behind our products, where we see overlap between where they’re heading and where we’re trying to go,” says Smelko. “From the very first meeting, we knew there was a great connection by virtue of our mission and product quality, and how they emphasize education and taking great pride in having the most knowledgeable staff who really act as a nutrition and health guide for the customers that walk into their stores.”
The Vitamin Shoppe sees Ora Organic as a brand partner that will provide customers with a modern take on premium nutritional products. “We really admire Ora’s approach to plant-based wellness and supplementation and believe their products offer the quality, efficacy and convenience our customers have come to expect,” says Dave Mock, executive vice president, and chief merchandising and marketing officer at The Vitamin Shoppe. “As a company dedicated to incubating brands and fostering innovation, we are excited to be the first national retailer to bring Ora’s brand to market and look forward to much success as trusted partners.”
Following the launch of its entire line across The Vitamin Shoppe’s retail network on July 1, Ora Organic is granting the retailer limited exclusivity on future product releases. “What we talked to them about, and we’re really excited about, was The Vitamin Shoppe being somewhat of an incubator for a lot of our newer, more innovative products,” says Smelko. “They’re going to have exclusive access to those products for the first few months. We’re really excited about that because it gives us and them a great way to really bring that innovation to market in 780-plus stores.”
The vote of confidence in The Vitamin Shoppe comes at a time when the chain is in transition. The retailer recently announced the appointment of Sharon M. Leite, former president of Godiva Chocolatier for North America and president of Sally Beauty, U.S. and Canada, as chief executive officer. The Vitamin Shoppe’s sales in fiscal year 2017 decreased 8.6% to $1.18 billion and, for the quarter ended March 31, they dipped 3.2% to $296 million.
Ora Organic has been working on building a supply chain robust enough to support the The Vitamin Shoppe since its 2015 launch. “We focused early on [on finding] the organic producers and suppliers that were transparent, that met our quality standards,” explains Smelko. “We invested the bulk of our time building out the manufacturing capabilities to be prepared for this kind of scale.”
Established initially as an online-only operation, Ora Organic has spread to brick-and-mortar retail accounts in addition to The Vitamin Shoppe that include regional natural food and vitamin chains like Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Lassens Natural Foods & Vitamins, Akins Natural Foods and Manhattan’s up-market food market Clover Grocer. Ora Organic has a branded storefront on Amazon, too. It has no intention of slowing down its distribution expansion.
“I would definitely still look for more retailers,” says co-founder Erica Bryers. “We’re very happy with the partners that we have currently. They’ve done such an incredible job of supporting us to brand, but we are seeing a lot of interest in different categories that we’re definitely going to pursue.”
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