USANA from a Consultants Perspective
This why I joined USANA and never looked back 17 years ago!
About Mike Hall:
I've worked as a consultant for the past 25 years helping companies improve their manufacturing,
operations, quality, and managing their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). I've worked with a
number of process manufacturing companies such as Starbucks, Darigold, Philosophy, numerous
pharmaceutical companies, and others including USANA. I've also worked with several other MLM
companies as well.
My wife, Claudia, and I are also very happy USANA customers and have reached the rank of Director
with USANA.
Below is my perspective on USANA from walking the plant floor, and hanging out in the quality labs as
well as meeting with management. I'll compare what I've see at USANA compared to other
supplement, pharmaceutical, and MLM companies.
USANA Quality – Overall USANA is one of the best run and best managed companies I have worked
with. They are on par or better than most of the prescription pharmaceutical companies and far
superior to other supplement manufactures. I'm not referring to the executive level, but down on the
plant floor, in the warehouse, in R&D, and in the quality labs. USANA frequently presents at
conferences with many other similar companies in attendance and I've had pharmaceutical companies
call and ask USANA for assistance in improving their operations. It is one thing to say your are the
best, but when prescription pharmaceutical drug companies call a little MLM vitamin company for
advice, that says volumes about the sophistication of USANA's operations.
I've spent days inside USANA on the other side of the glass wall on the manufacturing floor, in the
quality labs, and in the warehouse and it is sad to say, but USANA management of their production
process and attention to detail and quality is far superior to some of the pharmaceutical drug plants
I've been in. Should I ever get gravely ill, there are some drugs I will refuse to have injected into my
body because of what I've see in their operations. On the other hand I'd have no qualms dissolving a
USANA supplement and injecting it.
To contrast USANA with one supplement manufacturer I visited. We walked in from the parking lot into
the warehouse and ran our hands through product which was mixed and ready for capsule filling. We
didn't put any protective clothing, hair nets, or gloves on. We then went into the dispensing area. One
guy was by himself dispensing ingredients into a large tote. Nearby were the capsule filling machines
– out in the open with someone smoking 20-30' away and an open door to the outside nearby. Their
batch ticket, the documentation they use to direct production and to record what was done was two
pages long. Very common. Operators just checked off what they'd done. To top it off they had a pet
dog which was running around the manufacturing area. They were very proud that they had passed
their FDA inspection a week prior. This is perfectly acceptable food grade GMP manufacturing, well
maybe not the dog, but if you were making pizzas, hamburgers, cheese, cookies, dog food, this is fine
(Just without the dog). It was sad because their ingredients were decent and they rank about at 3 in
the Comparative Guide, but this how most of the competition manufactures their products.
USANA on the other hand is quite different from most supplement plants. I hope you've seen the tour
at the main office. Everyone is in shop coats, booties, hair nets, gloves, etc.; HEPA filtered positive
pressure air in the manufacturing area, etc. – Like a pharmaceutical drug company. The batch ticket to
make say the Chelated Minerals tablet is 112 pages long! At every single step one person does the
work, or records a setting (pressure, temperature, speed, weight, etc) and a second person double
verifies and both sign. When ingredients are weighed and dispensed this is done in a sealed room to
eliminate any chance of the airborne particles contaminating another batch of product. During tablet
pressing quality tests samples of the tablets every 30 minutes and uses statistical process control to
insure the tablets stay within acceptable ranges. When the batch is completed Quality Control reviews
every entry on that 112 page document as well as performing chemical and bacteriologic tests on the
finished product.
At USANA every single lot of ingredients received is subjected to over a dozen quality tests to test
both the chemical properties, the purity, and the absence of bacterial contamination. In contrast most
supplement manufactures may randomly test incoming ingredients and they will test the finished
product for bacterial contamination, but rarely will they test the chemical properties.
Many companies use sub-contractors to produce their products. This is very common. Many smaller
pharmaceutical companies focus on R&D and getting the FDA approval then they subcontract out the
production. Others will use subcontractors to handle the overload. These subcontractors will produce
anything you want and to your specs. They may be producing a pharmaceutical drug one day, a
generic OTC drug the next, and after that a pet supplement. Is the pet supplement produced the
same as the pharmaceutical drug? Probably not, unless they specified it and wanted to pay for the
added cost. Most of these subcontractors are very good and will produce the product the customer
orders. To use a simple analogy, We probably all live in houses. There are multi-million dollar
mansions and there are economical starter homes. The same construction crew can build either one
and everything in-between. The difference is in the drawings, plans, and material specifications. One
house may call for very expensive granite counter tops, the other formica. Like a sub-contractor, this
construction crew can build anything the customer wants.
USANA's advantage of in house production is that they can closely monitor and control the product
quality and every step of the process. They aren't depending on someone else to give them the
assurance that the ingredients and the product are to their specifications, they know it is produced to
their exacting standards.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) – USANA implemented one of the most advanced PLM
applications available. This is a software package used by multi billion dollar companies to manage
their new product introductions, product changes, packaging and labeling, etc. Like their
manufacturing operations USANA is now assisting other companies with their PLM efforts – They are
a leader. As we know, USANA is hyper-focused on product quality and the product development
process.
We've seen e-mails from USANA and have heard on some of our teams calls that there is no
compromising product quality or not providing the associates and customers with the best and safest
product available. Two examples come to mind:
Management wanted to drop the shampoo and conditioner because USANA wasn't making
much profit on it. To most companies this would be a done deal. Dr. Wentz though asked if
there was a comparable product available on the market for the USANA customers to switch
to. Management came back and said “No, there isn't” so Dr. Wentz said USANA would
continue to produce the shampoo and conditioner.
Procosa II – I remember an e-mail saying that the Procosa II price was going to be increasing
because of a price increase in the raw materials. So rather than finding a lower cost (and lower
quality) supplier, or putting less of that ingredient in, the price was increased. Absolute refusal
to compromise the product.
To contrast this with another MLM company I met with regarding PLM, they could care less. They had
their few products and they said they could really introduce any new product and the distributors would
buy it and push it down through their downline to increase the volumes to drive commissions, so it
really didn't matter too much at all what the product was.. As one of their high ranking distributors (my
neighbor) told me, “This is all about the money, the product just makes it legal.”
This product is really no different than what you buy at the grocery store or Costco for 1/10th the price,
but they can make a lot of money with the much higher price and selling it through MLM gives them a
captive customer base.
Pyramid vs Thinly Veiled Pyramid vs Product focused MLM – Pyramid, the question we all dread
dealing with. But let me delve into the last two in more detail to see how USANA compares to some
other companies.
Pyramid Scheme – We all know a pure pyramid scheme is illegal, where there is no product
and you only make money from the recruiting fee.
Product Focused MLM – These are companies we know well and have withstood the test of
time: Mary Kay, Tupperware, Amway (cleaning products) etc. Including USANA. These are
legitimate companies who have good and valuable products which there is independent
consumer demand for and pure customers will buy and use the products over and over without
any concern of a commission check. Looking at our organization we have far more PCs than
associates. We have a drawer full of Tupperware because they are good products. These
companies focus on producing a product and MLM is just the sales and marketing part of the
company.
Thinly Veiled Pyramid – Now here is where things blur. The most obvious is the e-book type
of scheme, your selling an e-book of questionable value, just to drive money through the
“pyramid” The only difference between this an a pure pyramid scheme, is that there is a
product, but of questionable value. The next step is the company which does have a product,
but it is often very low cost and sold at a premium price. One company I've talked to had a lot
of hype around the product, but no substance to back it up. If you looked a the product you can
buy an almost identical product in the store for $2.00, but they sell if for over $20.00, and it
costs them less than fifty cents to make. When you look at their presentation it is 3-4 minutes
about the products, then 45 minutes about the compensation plan. All they talk about is all the
money you can make. So what is the basis of this company? Is it about getting a good product
to the consumer, or is it about churning money through the comp plan? I think it is the later. As
my neighbor said the product only makes it legal.
So when you look at an MLM company and its products, really dig into the product, dig past the claims
and hype to see if the quality of the product justifies its price if it were on a store shelf, or what are
comparable retail products selling for? Take USANA Essentials for example, there are plenty of
independent third party accolades about the quality and potency. Yes, USANA is far more expensive
than what you'll find at Costco, but compare it to the other products which were awarded the
Nutrisearch Gold Medal of Achievement and USANA is comparably priced.
Ingredient Labels – Part of the PLM process is producing the Supplement Facts Label which you see
on the back of every bottle. It doesn't really matter what is on the front of the box/bottle, or in the
catalog, it is what is on the bottle that matters. If you look at the USANA Chelated Minerals facts panel
you'll see the serving size, then below that all the Active Ingredients, such as Copper (as Copper
Gluconate) 1 mg. That says there is 1 mg of Copper Gluconate in every 2 tablet serving. Now look
down below in the “Other Ingredients” section. These are ingredients which help the tablet stick
together, make it easier to swallow, but the key is they have no, or negligible, impact on the
ingredients listed above. So where it says Sodium Citrate, this does not add a dietary significance
amount of sodium to the tablets. I had a prospect who was on a severely sodium restricted diet and
posed this to the Ask the Scientists and they replied back that it would not affect her diet, it was of
dietary insignificance.
Since few consumers really understand the nutrient fact panel you can play games and make
something look better than it is. Lets look at a few key sections which are part of the Supplement
Facts:
Supplement Facts: This section lists the serving size, nutrients, weights of each, and the
%DV. Here like USANA lists Copper as Copper Gluconate. So you know which form of copper
is used, the amount and the %DV. You could also list multiple forms of an ingredient so,
USANA says Calcium (As Calcium Citrate and Carbonate). So you know there are two forms
and listed in descending weight order.
Ingredients: Optionally a company can list just Copper in the fact panel then in the
ingredients list they list all the ingredients in decreasing weight order. So someplace in that list
it would say copper gluconate, Copper oxide, etc. or could list both. What if they don't list the
form of copper (chelate, salt, or oxide) well then you don't know, but a good rule of thumb is
that if they don't specify which, then they probably used the cheapest form and unfortunately
the cheapest form is usually has the poorest absorption.
Other Ingredients: This is officially outside of the nutritional fact panel and is intended to list
the other ingredients used in the tableting or encapsulation process, flavors, sweeteners, etc.
So ingredients which don't add to the weight or %DV of the listed nutrients – Like the Sodium
Citrate in the USANA example above. What some companies do to hide the poor quality of
their ingredients is add a nutritionally insignificant amount of high quality ingredients to the
product and list them in the Other Ingredients section. This is commonly referred to as “Pixie
Dust”. This way they get a high quality ingredient on the label and don't disclose what the real
source of each vitamin, mineral, and nutrient are.
So, knowing how to read a label can give you great insight into the quality of the product.
Conclusion:
USANA is a world class company and they truly manufacture our products to the very highest
manufacturing standards. Their execution of this is better than many pharmaceutical drug
manufactures.
USANA throughly tests the ingredient and product quality at every step of the process. You
couldn't do any more quality testing if you wanted to.
USANA is very focused on the product formulation, packaging, labeling, etc. Everything must
be perfect. USANA is hyper-focused on the products.
USANA has very high ethical standards and the focus is truly on producing the absolutely best
product available without compromise.
USANA is a dedicated product company and uses MLM as the means to bring the products to
market vs other companies who may have low quality products, made cheaply and sold at a
premium price just to churn money through the comp plan.
◦ In case you didn't know, Dr. Wentz has never taken a paycheck from USANA. Look at the
public financial statements and you'll see his compensation is $0.00. How many other
people would have founded a company, grow it to $500 million, and not take a check?
USANA's products are honestly labeled to show exactly which ingredients are used.
Finally, USANA has so many uncompensated 3rd party accolades that attest to the quality of
the company, the quality of the products, and the effectiveness of the products.
