Nutrition supplement maker focuses product offerings

Adam Michelin is nobody’s fool, and he’s not about to get into head-to-head competition with Costco, Walmart and other business behemoths.

Instead, Michelin is carving a position for One World Science as a manufacturer and distributor of a relatively small number of nutrition supplements that aren’t easily replicated.

The strategy is beginning to gain traction for One World Science, which is moving its corporate headquarters to Reno from Southern California.

Currently conducting manufacturing operations from a facility at 255 Bell St. in downtown Reno, One World Science is negotiating for a larger space in a Reno-area industrial neighborhood.

Michelin says the growth in the company’s Reno operation reflects both its newly focused strategy as well as a distinctly unwelcoming environment in California, the current home of One World Science headquarters.

“I gotta get out of this place,” says Michelin, the chief executive officer of the company that’s moving from Los Alamitos in Orange County.

Regulatory hassles in California becoming more than he can bear, Michelin scouted five states — Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Utah — as new homes for the corporate headquarters.

He settled on Reno, largely because of the state’s regulatory climate as well as the welcome he got from the City of Reno, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Michelin got to know his way around town, too, after One World Science bought the assets of Health Freedom Nutrition, a Reno manufacturer of nutraceutical products, last summer.

The executive team of One World Science set about trimming the product line of Health Freedom Nutrition, eliminating slow-selling products and focusing instead on formulations and highly specialized products in which One World Science could develop a strong position.

For instance, a strong seller is Flamatrol, a proprietary blend of natural ingredients marketed to reduce joint inflammation.

Customers with questions get advice from the company’s team of health coaches. Two of those positions are currently in Reno, but Michelin says another half dozen or so will be transitioning to northern Nevada in coming months.

The company’s manufacturing staff of about 20 makes the ROEX-branded products that One World Science sells direct to consumers as well as the Sur Naturals brand that it sells through independent distributors and national health-products retailers.

EDAWN has estimated that the company will invest more than $1 million in its northern Nevada facilities and will pay wages that the economic-development agency described as “much higher than the state average of $20.36 an hour.”

Dan Burhmann of CB Richard Ellis has worked with One World Science to find real estate for its Reno operations. Also working with the company on workforce-development and other needs were Nevada JobConnect, Nevada Industry Excellence and Truckee Meadows Community College.