DCC Health and Beauty Solutions’ innovations make waves in the global nutrition and wellness market
With over 2600 experts working across seven facilities, DCC Health & Beauty Solutions (DCC Health & Beauty) is a global contract manufacturer for world-leading health and beauty businesses in the UK, Europe, and the US. Focused on manufacturing and supplying nutritional, cosmetic, health, and pharmaceutical products, the company’s goal is to create products specifically developed to suit each customer’s requirements. Thanks to this customer-focused partnership approach, DCC Health & Beauty has had the opportunity to work with over 3000 brands and suppliers. Louise Cruickshanks, Chief Development Officer, provides a detailed account of the company’s evolution and diverse operations across the globe.
“DCC Health & Beauty was established in 1994 as a subsidiary of DCC Healthcare, one of the three pillars of DCC plc, alongside DCC Energy and DCC Technology. As
part of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100, DCC plc has grown over 50 years from a small Irish venture capital company to a large, diversified multinational. On the contract manufacturing side of DCC Healthcare, there are seven facilities, five of which are based in the UK, and two in North America,” she opens.
Focusing specifically on DCC Health & Beauty, Louise adds: “We boast an international presence with various facilities in the UK and US to drive lifelong health for our customers. Starting as a soft gel encapsulation plant in Tredegar, South Wales, we have expanded with a tablet manufacturing plant in Runcorn, Cheshire, and acquired a beauty creams and liquids business in Alton, Hampshire in the early 2000s. Since then, we have introduced two more businesses in the UK, all focused on beauty creams and liquids. Our primary objective has always been to service brands with exclusive innovation in nutrition, health supplements, beauty, and credible skin care products through our five manufacturing sites in the UK.”
Following its tremendous success in the UK, Louise explains that expansion into the US was a natural next step for DCC Health & Beauty. “The North American market is vast in the nutritional health and big brand consumer markets. Given that innovation in nutritional health supplements largely originates from the US, venturing into this market was a logical move for us. Therefore, we acquired a small business in North America, followed by a larger scale operation in Largo, Florida, called Ion Nutritional Labs. We went on to further solidify our presence in the country with the acquisition of Amerilab Technologies in Plymouth, Minnesota, which strengthened our geographical manufacturing footprint and expanded our capabilities in effervescent and stick pack formats. Our diverse manufacturing sites in the UK and US enable our customers based in either of these countries to enter the other’s market by having us as a local manufacturer in their target sector.
“Beyond these key benefits, our expansion into the US has enabled us to broaden our product formats. Indeed, we currently manufacture tablets (coated, uncoated, sustained release, normal release, chewable, fast-melt, and effervescent), stick packs that can be mixed into a drink or taken directly, as well as hard-shell capsules. Through our hard-shell capsules, we can make products with high botanical content and other ingredients that are difficult to compress, along with other creative products in similar formats. In essence, our US facilities – consolidated into two locations – have significantly diversified our capabilities in producing effervescent tablets and other offerings requiring a controlled environment, such as blended products in sachets, stick packs, or tablets. Notably, we have created innovative new products within our Florida site, such as liquid-filled hard-shell capsules, capsules-within-capsules, and gummies, which are currently the most popular format consumed in North America and the fastest growing internationally,” she enthuses.
Nutritional gummies are actually one of DCC Health & Beauty’s most recent investments, as it constantly renews and refreshes its capabilities and product portfolio. “By doing so, we ensure that we stay ahead of the game in terms of product innovation. When we acquired Ion Nutritional Labs, the business already possessed gummy manufacturing capabilities. However, we saw an opportunity to differentiate ourselves in the gummy market. We didn’t just buy more machines to increase our capacity; instead, we carefully considered what kind of benefits we wanted to offer in our gummies. To achieve this, we collaborated on the design with our fantastic in-house expert, or ‘Gummy Guru’, who helped us during the design phase by assessing where the gummy market was headed and what consumers might want from a gummy product, then helping design the technology to bring that to life.
“Therefore, we invested in various levels of capability. First, we ensured that our gummy production was conducted in a current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) suite. As we approached gummy manufacturing as a nutritional health supplement manufacturer and developer, we designed our equipment to optimize the ingredients we could put into a gummy, ensuring the product’s stability and considering the needs of our customers and their consumers. To cater to various tastes and diets, we developed vegetarian- and vegan-friendly products, as well as bilayer gummies to provide a more interesting product format. The knowledge we have gained from our US operations has informed the development of our gummy format capability at our EuroCaps soft gel facility in the UK, allowing us to become one of the first companies in Europe to offer nutritional health gummies in a dedicated cGMP facility.
“At present, we are evaluating the market to determine our next investment in gummy manufacturing. By taking a forward-thinking approach, we boost our brand partners’ confidence in our ability to anticipate and respond to future trends. Furthermore, our Florida facility is equipped with a full cGMP pilot line, which allows us to conduct pump trials and test runs in the marketplace on a smaller volume scale rather than full commercial production. This reinforces our adaptability in supporting our customers’ needs and preferences, allowing them to reach their target consumers effectively. After the trial runs, we have the capability to scale up to full commercial production, thereby granting our partners a seamless transition from testing to full-scale manufacturing,” Louise elaborates.
As we near the end of our conversation, Louise emphasizes the importance of sustainability and safety at DCC Health & Beauty. “Because we are extremely passionate about limiting the environmental impact of our products and operations, we collaborate with our partners to promote sustainability. Additionally, our workforce’s safety is of utmost importance, so we foster a strong safety culture to ensure all employees return home safely every day. Our commitment to quality and safety extends of course to our consumable products. Hence, upholding quality standards in both our operations and product delivery is paramount to us, and sustainability plays a significant role in this. We have implemented various initiatives to reduce our environmental impact, such as using monofilms on blister packs to facilitate curbside recycling. Lastly, we are working on minimizing our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, to meet our objective to reduce our overall level of carbon emissions, and because we believe sustainable operations are the right thing to do,” she ends.
Empowered by strategic acquisitions and a focus on innovation, DCC Health & Beauty is poised to continue supporting every day, lifelong health and wellness.