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The history of a company can not only influence its culture, but it can often define its very soul. As such, the origin of Nature's Way is an incredibly unique story within the nutrition and dietary supplement industry. As one of the few original health food industry pioneers still in operation, the company has been in business since 1969.

The company was not founded, funded or owned by pharmaceutical giants, public shareholders or investment bankers. Rather, the motivation for Nature's Way is rooted in a family's desperate need to address a personal health crisis. Tom Murdock, the original founder of what is now Nature's Way, sought a solution to help his gravely ill wife. Fresh out of conventional options, he turned to the Native American knowledge of the plants in the Arizona desert. And as the saying goes, the rest is history. Not only did Tom's wife recover from her illness, but she lived an additional 25 years.

A few year's after the Murdock family's discovery, word had spread among friends, family, and the Southwestern U.S. community. What other treasures grew in the Arizona desert? Tom Murdock and the newly formed Nature's Way team were about to find out. As a result, eight simple herbal products were soon offered to health food shops in the local market. The original products were crude in their formulation, packaging and marketing, but significant as icons of the power of Mother Nature. And these products were nothing less than the foundation of the renaissance of the herbal supplement industry in America.

Industry Leader

Over the last three and a half decades, Nature's Way has pioneered more than just herbal and nutritional science. The company is a recognized leader among all of the nutritional and dietary supplement companies in America. Our list of "firsts" is extensive, and many of them pioneered the way retailers, consumers, industry, competitors, and even government viewed herbal and nutritional supplements. Here are a few of the things of which we are the most proud: 

First nutritional products manufacturer with a state-of-the-art,          pharmaceutically licensed facility

First major certified organic producer

First to bring significant European phytomedicines (plant based medicines) to market

First to spend more than a million dollars on legislative efforts to protect health freedoms

First industry recognized GMP (good manufacturing processes) facility

First to fund major third party organizations to responsibly disseminate health information and ensure quality

More than Just a Business

Nature's Way has a rich tradition of giving back. The company's business success has translated to success outside of the day-to-day operation. Over the years, it has been done in various ways and in varying amounts, but the fundamental belief has not changed. The company is fortunate to operate in essentially a "green" industry, and causes from environmental protection to local community programs have been an important part of Nature's Way's mission. The projects over the years have included:

·   Founding donor of groups to protect the world's rain forests, with most of the successful work in Samoa and Southeast Asia.

·   Vitamins for the poor in developing nations.

·   Donations to fund raisers for breast cancer and other chronic diseases.

·   Support for self reliance programs for the homeless in select western U.S. cities.

·  Sponsorship effort to provide complete holiday support for local Latino children.

·   Support for local youth and adult athletic leagues, including the Nature's Way women's soccer team.

 

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One of the companies founded by Joe Weider to promote health and physical fitness, Weider Nutrition International, Inc., is a leader in the nutritional supplement and natural products industry. The company manufactures both its own branded items, such as Mega Mass powdered drink mix, Fat Burner supplements, and Tiger's Milk energy bars, and also private-label botanical capsules and tablets and sports beverages. Such products had for years been sold mainly to bodybuilders and weight lifters, but in the 1990s Weider began making supplements for endurance athletes and the general public. Unlike many firms that use multilevel marketing, Weider sells its products in some 38,000 outlets, including mass retail/discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco and in health food stores such as the General Nutrition Center chain. Weider products are distributed in 42 nations. The firm enjoys a growing demand for health products in general and increased instances of research showing the usefulness of such items. However, those trends are also attracting more competitors to the supplement and herbal industry. Weider Health and Fitness, a subsidiary of Canada's M.L.E. Holding Company Ltd., owns about 65 percent of Weider Nutrition International.