The Ultralabels Manufacturer of the Year award celebrates the company that has made the most significant contribution to the manufacture of complementary medicines throughout the past year. Many congratulations to Factors Group; this family-owned Canadian company specialises in researching, developing, and producing high-quality nutritional supplements.
"Sustainability is imperative to our industry's principles," Evan Hayes, Managing Director of Factors Group ANZ & Senior Advisor to Factors Group Global.
One of North America's largest manufacturers and distributors of natural supplements, Factors Group has operated for over 65 years. It creates a wide range of tested, trusted and effective vitamins, minerals, herbal remedies, and other supplements.
Partnering with many of Australia's leading brands
Factors Group Australia is a sustainable, vertically integrated, Certified B Corporation®. We manufacture premium brands such as Bioclinic Naturals®, Whole Earth & Sea®, Webber Naturals® and SlimStyles®. We are also the preferred manufacturing partner for many of Australia's leading brands, providing extensive manufacturing, testing and raw material supply capabilities.
Evan Hayes, the Managing Director of Factors Group ANZ & Senior Advisor to Factors Group Global, says: "Our company has a genuine and industry-leading commitment to sustainable and traceable raw material sourcing and manufacturing," explains "We have over 600 acres of certified organic farmland in Canada's Okanagan Valley, and wherever possible, grow our plant-based ingredients. Any raw material we do not produce ourselves is subject to the highest level of scrutiny to ensure quality and purity. All raw materials undergo extensive independent analytical testing and certification by ISURA® who can identify and quantify over 700 contaminants."
Factors Group's state-of-the-art facilities include research and development centres, laboratories, processing, manufacturing and packaging plants. These allow production from seed to shelf, ensuring superior transparency throughout the supply chain.
Sustainability in manufacturing
The judging panel was impressed with the farm to finished product approach – and the company's focus on sustainability in manufacturing.
Evan explains: "Factors Farms™ consists of over 600 acres of organic farmland in Canada's Okanagan Valley. A variety of medicinal crops are grown, giving us access to superior raw materials and allowing us to supply high-quality products while supporting environmental sustainability."
All seeds planted are non-GMO, and crops are fertilised with compost (including leftover plant matter from the manufacturing process) to reduce wastage.
"These methods allow us access to the best quality raw materials that nature has to offer. Crops are harvested at their peak and processed at our manufacturing facility, located less than an hour's drive from the farms, to maximise potency. We also create pollinator habitats, as bees are an essential part of our farm ecosystem," says Evan.
An industry-leading commitment to environmental best practices
Sustainability is more than just a corporate value at Factors Group Australia – they are proud to be a certified B Corporation® and 100% carbon neutral (Bullfrog certified). This certification proves the company's industry-leading commitment to measurable environmental best practices.
Factors Group is also actively involved in anti-modern slavery practices. The company performs DNA testing and mass spectrometry to protect against plant adulteration. Rare plants are protected within a CITES review. Their partnership with like-minded companies demonstrates their commitment not to invest in companies that negatively impact the environment.
Leading sustainability and innovation
"Sustainability is imperative to our industry's principles," Evan emphasises. "The complementary medicine industry has been leaders in innovation, healing through natural medicine and educating people about the benefits of homeostasis and harmony. Sustainability is very much an extension of this. Suppose our patients sometimes get sick because of toxins in nature. In that case, treating the condition also means we have to eliminate those toxins from the environment and our supply chain. We are proud to lead in this area. It is something we have always done and something that we encourage others to follow.
Companies may feel that they are too small to make changes. Still, partnering with a company of our scale, we can work together to use our size to support their sustainability strategies," explains Evan.
The NPD partnership
Factors Group formulates and manufactures 100% of listed medicines for two of Australia's leading grocery chains home brands. They are IP holders and manufacturers for some of the top ten products in Australia for Australia's leading brands.
"We consider our NPD process a partnership. We develop many innovations that we feel are more suitable for other high-quality brands. At Factors, we are fully collaborative with the complementary medicine community. Our goal is to utilise our extensive resources globally to offer the best patient solution for Australia's healthcare needs. The Australian consumer has excellent choices in high-quality brands, which often means we provide our innovative products to other like-minded brands. It allows us to develop highly specialised, unique products that we can design with specific brands in mind based on their DNA and customer demographics.
End-to-end ancillary services
Given our expertise and desire to collaborate, it makes sense that we offer complete end-to-end ancillary services such as formulation and claims to our customers if needed. Our customers love this - it allows them to focus on the parts of their business they excel at while remaining confident they are getting best-in-class products. We love this approach as these products and brands may differ from our own. So, it allows us to be creative in our product development and to reach a wider audience," ends Evan.
Many congratulations to Factors Group!
