Ive previously said Ive never seen as many shysters in this industry as Ive seen come along in this recession.
Im going to tell you a litte story (just because my disgust level is high right now)
A broker (who takes care of a slew of name brand companies you see out there on supplement store shelves and in magazines...companies that have been talked about on this and other boards far and wide, known NAME BRAND COMPANIES) contacts my business partner and I to custom manufacturer for him. I already make supplements for about 42 companies out there so this is the norm. Its a very rare case that any sparkly label retail supplement company makes their own products....its custom manufacturers like myself who do so, and they (retail supplement company) stick to the media marketing/advertising.........In the last year my business partner and I have seen this recession bring out the worst of the worst of business people to make a dollar.
He (broker for these many retail companies) wants hundreds of thousands of pounds of raw materials jugged, heatsealed, labeled, and shipped out to supplement stores or distributorships. Not a problem...thats what we do.
The profit margin on everything he wanted to do came out to 400 thousand dollars a month. Thats what he wanted to start out doing and then he wanted to ramp up even higher. He had lost his last custom manufacturer because they were shysters who got out of the shyster business and reformulated (a company that has been talked about on this board, other boards and has advertised on many boards over the last many years....some of you board owners probably know of whom i talk about as about 3 of you contacted me over the years and said "hey what the hell is up with these guys products, we are having serious stomach problems over here") .....I digress.
So we price everything out and this broker is good to go...he is excited. At the last minute before we start production he asks the question we have been getting alot of in the last year....."Heyyyyyyy, you guys know whats up.......lets do this, lets take out 25% of that (many dollar per pound) Isolate and lets put in (less than a buck) dextrose"........
Our reply, "yea we can do that but we are going to have to have you change the labels you sent over to apply because now the ingredient list is different."
Him: Naaa just leave the labels like they are, its good to go"
This has gone on for many weeks now with us absolutely refusing to put on his labels.....including a lengthy discussion between my business partner and I about all the particulars involving this company and our morals/values as a manufacturing company.
And then the ensuing argument/refusal with the broker/company which ended with turning this company/broker away.
Bottom line? We turned down 5 million dollars profit (at least) a year because we do the "right thing" over here. Im giving my business partner and myself a little pat on the back for that because TAKE IT TO THE BANK....the next custom manufacturer wont turn him away and a whole bunch of guys in this bodybuilding industry will be on bodybuilding boards raving about a "PROTIEN THAT TASTES FREAKING INCREDIBLE (ahhh good old dextrose) AND THE PRICE JUST CANT BE BEAT FOR "cough cough" 24 grams of protein per scoop
Would he have been my biggest client numbers wise? No, but its a good chunk of change.....but....allow myself a little pride of doing the right thing.
Its a very dog eat dog world out there right now (not only in supplement industry but every industry)...we got taken for 5 figures in 2008 and 5 figures in 2010 in deals involving "friends' in the bodybuildng industry that I gave a little leeway too....lessons learned.......
I ask everyone to be very wary and a educated consumer in this new year.
Dante,
The way I look at it - and correct me if I'm wrong.
The big guys, the HUGE companies that are out there. Gaspari, BSN, Dymatize, Optimum, etc.. Are the ones that are undergoing the most scrutiny. It's a dog eat dog world out there, and if any of these companies were lying on their labels - the other companies would find out.
Example - If Gaspari's Myofusion really had 10g of sugar in there instead of 3, with only 17g of protein instead of 25.. I have a feeling that BSN, Dymatize, etc.. Would be testing this protein privately, and it would not be that way for long. They would release the results publicly to try and take business away from that company and drive more towards themselves.
I would consider any of the big companies as safe, since If I were an owner of BSN and Myofusion comes out for cheaper and tastes awesome - I would test that shit and expose them if it were a lie on the label.
I could be completely off base, and let me know if I am. This is just my conclusion of the companies. The companies I absolutely do not trust are the small house-brand companies, the up-and-comers, and the ones that no one really cares enough about to test. I've tasted some DAMN good protein from small-ass companies.. Ya know, If dymatize can't make theirs taste THAT good.. They probably can't either.
I think some legal action happened about a few years ago when 1fast400 tested some of proteinfactories products and they didn't meet the label claim
and protein factory sued them.
Not sure what the basis was...but it's probably a complicated issue if one company were to test anothers products and publish the tests-if they accused them of tampering etc-or the impending cost of litigation prevented them from pursuing it.
A few years back I posted on Mayhem about how Met-Rx basically sucked as they had changed the formula after Rexall bought the company from Dr. Connelly...and I was cotacted by one of there reps to pull the comment or they could sue me. yea right, I knew the formula changed but didn't need the headache of dealing with threats like that.
Dante, cudos for having integrity. Takes a lot of moral fiber to turn down a large sum of profit like that.
My question for you though is this: how can we be better educated consumers? If the places that make the supplements are mislabeling the product how can we actually know that? I don't see how it's possible?
Don't get me wrong, I already buy 85% of my supplements from TP, but for someone who for whatever reason want's to buy the shiny jugs. How can they know what they are getting?
To play devils advocate(I don't believe this at all), how do we even know what TP sell us is as labeled? If I make a custom mix up, or buy x amount of lbs of isolate I'm still taking your word that it has say 26g of protien per serving.
I guess MY answer to that is trust. I trust True Protein because of the rep that you guys have, and I've used your products and many other people have and vouch for them.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Business Ethics hard to find in america these days. another reason to love TP
isn't that illegal to sell a product that is different than the label? I thought that is why we have the FDA
What scum bags in this industry. Out of curiosity what would it cost for the average person to get something tested? If we tried to locate a place to send some protein powder too to find the amount of fat, protein, carbs, how much is something like that?
I think someone needs to do like that supplement review book again, test a bunch of products and put it out there even if something small like in an article or a blog online. Depending on price, would love to see maybe 15-20 brands tested and then maybe this would be a way to see who are the scum bags and maybe the outfit Dante speaks of will be in there as well, this way he would not have to tell us who they are in a public forum and risk being sued.