exclusive to health food stores, in small part helped by including the Canadian maple leaf in our main logo! NOW sales grew by over 2,000% in just 5 years as Puresource focused on distributing NOW brand to independent stores. Our management team learned much about nationalism north of the border, which is alive and well, and all U.S. employees needed to learn on-the- job how NOT to offend Canadians with American bravado. In June 2003, NOW opened a distribution depot in Sparks, NV to improve our service levels and shipping times to West Coast customers. Previously, NOW either shipped ground orders by UPS or FedEx and air shipments by DHL. But this was either slow or expensive, so we made plans to build a distribution facility that would be able to support our most distant US customers. The new building is 29,000 sq. ft. and features a simplified picking system that is lower in cost and easier to use. The manager instilled a high level of service among her employees and she had an interesting personal example of superior customer service. One Friday, she was at home on vacation and the office called to say that a very large order had been shipped to the wrong customer and the trucking company couldn’t deliver it for several more days. The order was very big, so she rented a local U-Haul truck and drove nine hours with her family in tow to pick up and make a special Sunday delivery near Los Angeles. The customer was very grateful and our manager even made a Herculean effort to get back to Sparks in time for the Monday rush of orders. That’s the kind of effort that makes a difference between good companies and great ones. Later in 2003, another opportunity came our way when the owners of Nature’s Apothecary, a brand of liquid herbal extracts, called offering to sell us their small business. The business had been in decline for several years and came crashing down when a deal with GNC fell through. Nature’s Apothecary had over-extended itself and produced vast quantities of unusual liquid herbs, which could not be sold through normal store channels. The line was conceived using wildcrafted “fresh” herbs, which had to be harvested, transported and processed for extraction within 72 hours. Despite the production challenges inherent in “fresh” liquid extracts, the line grew to over 250 different products, including aromatherapy inhalers and room sprays. A nominal herbalist would be humbled by lack of knowledge of herbs in the line such as Blood Root, Figwort Leaf, Hydrangea Root, Poke Root, Squaw Vine, Stone Root and Toadflax. Unfortunately, Nature’s Apothecary never took off and NOW discontinued the entire brand in 2007. In May 2005, NOW purchased Burnham Labs, a cosmetic manufacturer in Niles, IL that gave NOW expertise to add new personal care products. John and Soo Chang had owned the company for about 10 years and it seemed to be an opportune time for them to cash out and for NOW to cash in! NOW had been a customer of Burnham for over 5 years as Burnham made products such as MSM lotion, Long Lasting Deodorant Stick, Celadrin® Lotion, Joint Support Cream and Wrinkle Rescue™ Cream. Burnham only had about 15 employees, which NOW easily absorbed and needed to run the existing business. This prompted one big change within NOW as quality and production 94 BEATING THE ODDS
