Shortly after tech entrepreneur Darren Litt became a father, he asked his family’s pediatrician what kinds of vitamins, minerals and supplements his child should be taking.

The pediatrician recommended a brand, which Litt promptly ordered a supply of through Amazon.com Inc.

“When I got the brand, I was stunned to see it had added sugar, artificial dyes and gummies that stuck together,” Litt said. “I thought to myself: ‘This isn’t healthy. It’s candy in disguise. It doesn’t make sense.’”

As he discussed the prevalence of sugar-laden vitamins and supplements with friends, he said they told him that “Their kids really liked the taste, but we don’t think they work all that well.”

Litt scoured around and found only products that were “sticky, sugary gummies with bright colors.”

That’s when Litt decided to do something about it. He spoke with dozens of pediatricians, who all recommended an array of vegetables and minerals in the supplements instead of sugars. He also talked with manufacturers.

By 2019, Litt and a former work colleague that he recruited, Adam Gillman, established Hiya Health Products in Brentwood to make vitamins, minerals and supplements for children without the sugar and additives.

Exclusive focus on children’s vitamins and supplements

“From the outset, Hiya Health was intended to be a wellness brand for kids,” Litt said.

That initial focus only on children is unusual for manufacturers of vitamins, minerals and supplements for kids.

“Most brands just have a sub-brand that targets children,” said Rick Polito, editor of Nutrition Business Journal, a Boulder, Colorado-based publication focused on the supplement industry.

Polito said that a brand that exclusively sells to children (or really, parents of children) is a naturally limiting market, which is why there have been so few companies doing this.

“When the kids grow up, the families leave that product line and the brand that only sells kids vitamins then has to find new customers to replace them – it’s a constant state of churn,” Polito said. “With the major vitamin and supplement companies, they have sub-brands targeting all age groups, so you can build up customer loyalty, (with customers) able to stay with the brand their entire lives.”

Among the broader market companies with children’s vitamin and supplement products are Manchester, New Hampshire-based MegaFood and San Francisco-based Olly. MegaFood does market a line of children’s vitamins that are vegetarian and gluten free, while Olly makes a line of gummies for children.

Bootstrapping the company

Litt and Gillman decided not to seek venture capital or other outside funding, which put them on a shoestring budget. They had to convince a manufacturer to take a chance on the notion that parents were eager for an alternative to the sugar-laden kids’ vitamins and supplements then on the market.

They found a willing vitamin manufacturer on the East Coast and were set to launch with a line of children’s multivitamins without sugars, additives and dyes. The decision was made from the outset to be a direct-to-consumer company and not to compete for shelf space at drug stores or other major retailers.

But immediately they faced another obstacle.

“The day we launched” – March 11, 2020 – “was the same day that the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic,” Litt said.

Litt added that he and Gillman thought the pandemic would shatter their fledgling company. But as the months progressed, the opposite happened.

“With all the attention on health, we found it benefited the company,” Litt said. “From Day 1, sales were higher than our expectations. We were all about helping kids stay healthy and, especially in those times, that was what parents wanted, too.”

The full retail price for Hiya Health’s multivitamins runs nearly $1 a tablet, though on its website, there are deals for first-time customers for half that unit price. Those deals are in line with a sale price on Amazon of about 53 cents per unit for MegaFood Kids one daily multivitamin, though more than the 20 cents per unit for the Olly brand of multivitamin gummies for kids.

Nonetheless, demand for Hiya Health’s vitamins continued to exceed expectations. To help scale up, Litt and Gillman obtained an unspecified amount of financing from an unnamed alternative lender.

That financing also allowed Hiya Health to offer more supplement products for kids, including a probiotic and iron and immune-boosting supplements.

Sales grew briskly, reaching roughly $115 million last year on a base of more than 200,000 customers. In 2023, Litt said, the company first turned a profit.

One customer who turned to Hiya Health last year was Ellen McLain, a marketing consulting in the entertainment industry who lives in Beverly Hills and has two young children.

McLain’s son, who was three years old, was taking antibiotics to treat an ear infection and she was looking for a probiotic supplement to restore healthy bacteria to her son’s gut once the antibiotic treatment was finished. She decided to try Hiya Health’s probiotic supplement after a friend recommended it.

The probiotic appeared to work, which led her to try other Hiya Health products, including a “greens and superfood” powder.

“My kids love the taste, and I know it’s good for them,” she said.

Company acquired

All this growth made Hiya Health a tempting target for acquisition. And, last December, Hiya Health finally agreed to be acquired by Salt Lake City-based nutrition supplements and personal care products company USANA Health Services Inc., which paid about $205 million for a 79% stake in the company. USANA Health Services uses a multilevel marketing distribution model for its products that is similar to Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. in downtown Los Angeles. It has about 1,700 employees and last year posted $855 million in sales.

“Hiya’s co-founders, Darren Litt and Adam Gillman, have disrupted the children’s health and wellness market by building a high quality, better-for-you brand that aligns with our vision of creating the healthiest family on Earth,” Jim Brown, chief executive of USANA Health Services, said in the acquisition announcement.

The terms of the deal allow for Litt and Gillman to remain in their leadership positions with Hiya Health, according to the announcement.

Litt said the deal will allow Hiya to take advantage of USANA’s larger manufacturing capacity and international reach.

“We are now at the point where we are starting to talk with retailers about putting our products on store shelves,” Litt said.

Litt added that in recent years, Hiya Health had been approached by several major retailers, but the company declined those offers because Litt and Gillman felt the company wasn’t ready to make that leap. Keeping store shelves stocked required larger inventories and greater manufacturing capabilities than what Hiya Health had at the time.

With the acquisition concluded, Hiya Health is also looking at online distribution through Amazon or similar third parties, Litt said.

Another goal is to sell Hiya Health’s children’s supplements in other countries, though Litt didn’t put forward a specific timetable.

“When we are ready to go international, USANA’s presence internationally will certainly help,” he said.

Fending off challenges

For now, Hiya Health is relatively unique in its focus on children’s vitamins, minerals and supplements without sugars, additives and dyes.

But Polito of the Nutrition Business Journal said this advantage may not last long because the major vitamin and supplement makers know they have a problem with sugars in their kids’ product lines.

“The issue of sugars has been hanging over this market segment for years,” Polito said. “In fact, I’m astonished that the children’s gummy segment has continued to grow as much as it has despite all the sugars they contain.”

He said the major brands are beginning to address the issue.

“Everybody is trying to get the sweetness without the sugar,” he said.

It’s only a matter of time, he said, before the major brands come out with products that are similar to Hiya Health in that they would have no sugars, additives or dyes.

In the meantime, Hiya Health is seeking to play up its advantage on this front.

Just last week, the company received certification from the Clean Label Project Foundation, a Broomfield, Colorado-based nonprofit seeking to bring increased transparency and truth-in-labeling standards in the food and consumer industries. The organization tests products for heavy metals, plasticizers, pesticides and other contaminants that are often not disclosed in product labels. The foundation gave Hiya Health purity awards for several of its vitamin, mineral and supplement products.