As we often say at Thorne, healthy aging is a gift. It’s about embracing the way you feel, your experiences, and how you have evolved. Now it’s time for us to take our own advice as Thorne celebrates a momentous occasion – 40 years in the business of good health.

In preparation for this tremendous milestone, we sat down with some of our longtime employees to celebrate this accomplishment, listen to their personal stories, and learn what they envision for the Thorne of tomorrow.

But before we dive in, we want to acknowledge that this important company milestone isn’t just about us or our very dedicated employees.

It’s also about you. Whether you’ve recommended our products to your patients for years, trust us for our commitment to clean sport, or are perusing our website right now for the very first time, we thank you.

Cheers to 40 years and here’s to another happy and healthy 40.

Quality as the cornerstone

When Thorne was founded in 1984, it was a direct response to the supplement industry (a “thorn” in the side of the competition if you will). The founders, who had previous experience at supplement companies, saw manufacturers prioritize their bottom line at consumers’ expense.

But by investing in exemplary ingredients, perfecting manufacturing methods, and participating in clinical research, Thorne could offer a superior product that no one else was making – a quality product that health-care practitioners and their patients could trust. 

Thorne’s reputation within the health-care practitioner community quickly attracted longtime employees like Dr. Mario Roxas, today, Thorne’s Director of Research and Development. For Dr. Roxas, it was the company’s insistence on using the most bioavailable forms of vitamins and minerals for superior absorption and formulating with hypersensitivities in mind that initially appealed to him.

“Thorne was really devoted to creating a supplement line for people who really needed it, from a clinical standpoint,” he says. “As a clinician, that was a big deal.”

Perhaps even more compelling than what Thorne does is what it refuses to do; just because something is good enough for other supplement manufacturers, doesn’t mean it’s good enough for us. Just look at our quality page where we outline our four rounds of in-house testing (our competitors test only once or twice) or our “No List” of ingredients that we will never use in our products.

Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Stephen Phipps cites Collagen Plus, Thorne’s first collagen product, as a prime example of this. Although there was consumer demand and plenty of collagens on the market, we took our time to get the ingredients and overall formulation just right.

Because people come before profit. It’s that simple. Vice President of Manufacturing Claire Critchell, who moved from her native Idaho with the company, says it’s why she’s been here for 19 years and counting.

“I have two children that have been taking these products their entire lives. Being able to create something that you have so much confidence in, that’s something to be proud of,” she says. “That’s something I can really stand behind.”

Our health-care practitioner roots

As is often the case with startups, Thorne began as a “mom-and-pop" operation. But soon enough the company outgrew its humble beginnings in Seattle, Washington. In 1990, Thorne moved to Sandpoint, Idaho and began hiring.

One of those first employees was Dr. Kathi Head, Executive Director of Medical Media. Before Thorne, Dr. Head was practicing naturopathic medicine and teaching nutrition in San Diego, where she used Thorne’s science-backed product information sheets to help educate her students. 

While she had always respected Thorne, Dr. Head says she never imagined working at a supplement company, that is, until she saw the first copy of Alternative Medicine Review®, Thorne’s very own peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed journal.

Dr. Head went on to become editor-in-chief of Alternative Medicine Review for nearly a decade, but when she was hired, she didn’t expect to stay.

“I really thoroughly expected to move up to Sandpoint and work for maybe three years or so and then go back to practicing,” she says. “I enjoyed what I was doing so much that here I am, 27 years later.”

She worked on the journal with Dr. Roxas who “wore many hats,” providing support for clinicals, formulations, marketing, sales, and more. The work environment, he says, felt like being a part of a “close-knit community within a small town” – and one that was very much embedded in nature.

Thorne’s offices offered an idyllic view of Lake Pend Oreille and the surrounding woods where bald eagles and moose sightings were the norm, a scene that struck Dr. Roxas as poetic given Thorne’s emphasis on quality and purity.

An era of growth

When Darci Hiebert, Director of Customer Service, started in 1992, there were about 50 people in a small two-story building. At that time, completing 100 orders was considered a very busy day, she says.

Five years later, Thorne moved to an “enormous” 57,000-square-foot building across town. Production and shipping shared the downstairs, and office staff worked upstairs.

“There were so few of us when we moved into that building that when you talked, it echoed,” Hiebert says. “And I remember a few of us chatting and going, ‘Man, we’re never going to outgrow this building. This thing is huge. We’re never going to need all this space.’”

But in just a few short years, shipping moved out, followed by customer service as production demand quickly grew. And the pace only picked up when Paul Jacobson and Tom McKenna took over as CEO and COO in 2010, a move that changed everything.

Their leadership was “a breath of fresh air” Hiebert says, as Thorne started to prioritize its digital presence for the very first time. In the early days, marketing meant mailers, conferences, and word of mouth among health-care professionals, but now, it required an official department.

Finally, in 2018, Thorne entered the direct-to-consumer space, literally opening the door to a new audience; for the first time ever, the average consumer could purchase Thorne products without a prescription.

Moving forward

2018 was not only a big year for Thorne’s sales, but also for many employees as the company moved from Sandpoint, Idaho to its new headquarters in Summerville, South Carolina.

Dr. Phipps, who grew up in Florida and only lived in Idaho for three years, says moving across the country was an easy decision for him. But the fact that so many others did spoke volumes.

“There are people who [moved] that had never left Idaho before. That was their home. That was their life. That was everything. That was an adventure for them,” Dr. Phipps says. “You don’t see that a lot.”

History always seems to have a way of repeating itself and that was certainly the case because just a few years after the move to Summerville, the company broke ground at a second location down the street for further expansion.

Since then, Thorne has only continued to take health to new heights on every front of its operations. On the product side, we launched some of our most innovative formulas, participated in clinical research, and added to our NSF Certified for Sport® lineup. Packaging is now comprised of nearly all recycled materials, or they are recyclable.

It’s the same story with digital as Thorne.com now offers several programs including subscriptions, referrals, and ambassador and professional accounts. And if you follow us on social media, you’ll see that everyone is talking about us – medical experts, respected publications, and even some of the biggest names in professional sports.

“You look at the reach and the kind of reputation that Thorne has had and it has just grown,” says Dr. Roxas. “Not only now with where we are going into direct-to-consumer, it's really evolved from when we were just a practitioner-only brand, it kind of laid the foundation for trust.”

The next 40 years and beyond

As we reflect on how Thorne has evolved over 40 years, it raises the question of where we’ll be in another 40. With age comes experience, and inevitably, a shift in identity. But for Dr. Phipps, this milestone is a sign that Thorne can stand the test of time.

“You’re not a startup anymore. You’re not clawing your way to being successful. You’re not proving yourself anymore,” Dr. Phipps says. “But I think that's the beauty of it. You know, there's a whole different aspect of the next 40 years that, if done right, is a beautiful thing.”

No matter what innovations we make, how much we grow, or who we partner with, one thing is certain about our future; Thorne remains committed to helping you find the right quality formula to support your health needs and goals.

“We just keep getting out there in the market and becoming a brand that people love, people trust, people look for, people know about now,” Hiebert says. “It’s been a lot to learn, but it’s sure been exciting.”

Watch this video for a birthday message from the Thorne team.