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With The Opportunity To Sell Into The $100 Billion Health Food Industry As Well As The $2 Trillion Traditional Food Service And Grocery Industry With Their New ‘Foodceutical’ Vitamin/Spice Blend Products, The Future Looks Promising For VitaminSpice And Its Shareholders |
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VitaminSpice (OTCBB: VTMS) is uniquely
positioned between the $100 billion health food/vitamin supplement industry
and the multi-trillion-dollar traditional food industry. A pioneer in the
emerging FoodCeutical industry, VitaminSpice sells vitamin- mineral- and
antioxidant-infused spices and food products. Their offerings currently
include Crushed Red Pepper, Ground Black Pepper, Sea Salt, Italian
Seasoning, Ground Cinnamon and Granulated Garlic. A proprietary
micro-encapsulation process keeps the vitamin properties locked inside--even
when heated--allowing the food products to retain their full flavor.
Edward Bukstel
ebukstel@vitaminspice.net Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFOinterviews.com, Published – February 12, 2010
Mr. Bukstel: We are taking vitamins and minerals and we are including them in spices by using a proprietary process that takes the bad taste of the vitamins away prior to the blending with vitamins. So a person can go to an Italian restaurant and have some VitaminSpice Garlic on their pizza and the next thing you know, they just had a multivitamin.
CEOCFO: Was this your idea? Mr. Bukstel: Yes it was my idea.
CEOCFO: What was the impetus for your unique blend of vitamins and spices?
Mr. Bukstel:
The impetus came about almost two years ago. I have two daughters that love
to cook and I like to go the gym to try to stay healthy and take my
nutritional supplements. So I started thinking about the spices that my
daughters were using, and thought to myself, ‘why don’t we combine them and
have a single product of spices and vitamins.’ That was the ah-ha moment. CEOCFO: What went into figuring out how to do it, and how can we be sure of the contents? Mr. Bukstel: First and foremost, the company puts the vitamins in a micro-encapsulated form and they are blended based on our chief medical officers direction. This done with knowledge of what types of products the consumer is looking for today and obviously they are utilizing products and services and products that are (GRAS) generally recognized as safe. For example, things like B complex, glucosamine or antioxidants would be available.
CEOCFO: Where are you in bringing your products to the market? Mr. Bukstel: We are just launching the products. They will be in the market in multiple locations such as food stores, health food stores, traditional grocery stores and the food service channel where you find many household names.
CEOCFO: You have six spices you have started with, why did you choose those specific spices? Mr. Bukstel: The choice of the six seemed natural for the way people cook products as well as what they are basically doing today. There are other formulations as well, for instance turmeric and cumin and other blends of various other types of blends. In development, we will be rolling out products such as chocolate sprinkles that you would put on ice cream that would allow you to make sure your kids or yourself have a dosage of vitamins at the same time you are enjoying your ice cream.
CEOCFO: Many people take vitamins on a regular basis. How do we make the switch to getting vitamins in our spices? How do we get the correct balance? Mr. Bukstel: The efficacy issue is always a point that needs to be looked at. In most cases, people do not take vitamins on a regular basis or many times forget to take their multivitamin in the morning. However, with VitaminSpice, even if I forget to take my multiple vitamins, I may be at the office, and all of a sudden I will shake a little bit of cinnamon into my coffee and the next thing you know I just had a multivitamin.
CEOCFO: How have you been getting attention and shelf space? Mr. Bukstel: Much of the attention has been word-of-mouth to date. There are other avenues that we will be taking very shortly. We have also attended some of the premiere health and food conventions in the country getting the word out to various retailers. For instance, we were at The National Restaurant Associations that attracts 70,000 people from restaurants across the country and the world, the Pizza Expo, as well as the Natural Products Expo. The company has been written up in various periodicals, magazines, and trade press, which certainly drives attention and creates demand.
CEOCFO: What is your demographic? Mr. Bukstel: Everyone that wants to increase their own health and well being is a potential customer. As far as specific markets and their individual demographics, we have kids and parents that want to ensure that the nutritional value of their food is increased. Therefore, there is a need to make sure that we find innovative ways to get vitamins and minerals into kids, and VitaminSpice is certainly a way to make that happen. Number-two, we also have in the process some clinical trials to work with the elderly and a university that will do a study on VitaminSpice and its effects in utilization with elderly patients in geriatric terms. This is because in many cases there are problems taking food and or vitamin supplements for instance. Basically, we are looking at a demographic that that is a fit for the young as well as the elderly.
CEOCFO: What is the financial picture like for the company today? Mr. Bukstel: We have attracted multiple groups and certainly, there is a heck of a lot of interest on putting capital into the company. I was initially concerned about bringing a company like this to market and we have been pleasantly surprised with the response from a raising capital perspective.
CEOCFO: What is the pricing compared to a standard jar of garlic? Mr. Bukstel: Most of the spices out there on the market are not that good. You can find some places that will sell spices for .50 cents in a dollar store. If you take for instance a one-to-one comparison let’s say with the McCormick Gourmet collection we will be about 10% to 20% premium on that. However, our spices are sourced from the best places all around the world; cinnamon from Viet Nam and garlic from Gilroy, California. So we are going to the best places on earth, looking for the freshest and the best of the best.
CEOCFO: Where are you manufacturing? Mr. Bukstel: Our final process is performed in Philadelphia.
CEOCFO: Will you give us a run-down on all the points we should know about the products? Mr. Bukstel: First, you are getting most of the benefits of the vitamins and in fact you are looking at a product that is certainly natural. The spices are kosher, calorie-free, gluten-free, and this is a product with no sugars or any type of artificial sweeteners. They also do not have any additives, preservatives or added coloring. In addition, because of the proprietary process, our products also allow someone cooking to add the vitamins through their spices after it is cooked. Let’s say they are cooking some broccoli, which most people would say is healthy, but in many ways the heat denatures or kills the vitamins, which means the vitamins aren’t all there in that good broccoli or spinach that has been heated up. Therefore, with VitaminSpice you can now add the vitamins shortly before serving heated or unheated food, making sure those vitamins have been replenished.
CEOCFO: Can people buy directly from you as well; would that be an avenue for you? Mr. Bukstel: Yes, that definitely would. There are the other avenues of course of going to the various distributors and retailers, but we will be working on our website.
CEOCFO: How protected is the process, and once it catches on what is to prevent other companies, maybe even large companies from getting on the bandwagon? Mr. Bukstel: Well we do have a provisional patent for the product. Some of the technology has been around for 35 years and yet no one had thought about creating such a product. So as far as stopping people from doing things we feel that we have some very significant items to hold onto in our patent application.
CEOCFO: Final thoughts, why should potential investors pay attention to VitaminSpice? Mr. Bukstel: It is very simple; you are looking at a company VitaminSpice that is literally at the cusp of the traditional grocery and food service market. The other side is the health food market. We have actually kind of coined a new product term as folks did early on with items like nutraceuticals, where they kind of laughed about that. However, those products sure enough became a $100 billion industry. So we are at the nexus of a $100 billion of the health food industry and nearly $2 trillion traditional food service and grocery industry. We actually believe that. So many people say, ‘Where do we put you? Do we put you in the spice isle or the vitamin isle?’ And it has been told to us that VitaminSpice has created a whole new category of product and we are calling ourselves a ‘FoodCeuticals.’ Also, we have recently added Bill Fields, Former CEO of Walmart, to our Board of Directors. In addition, we have signed agreements with Mr. Fields’ companies concerning distribution in the United States and China. In January 2010, the company signed an Agreement that will allow for the Co-Branded product offerings with “Iron Chef.”
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We are taking vitamins and minerals and we are including them in spices by using a proprietary process that takes the bad taste of the vitamins away prior to the blending with vitamins. So a person can go to an Italian restaurant and have some VitaminSpice Garlic on their pizza and the next thing you know, they just had a multivitamin. - Edward Bukstel |
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