Fast-rising contract manufacturer Dynamic Blending makes cosmetics, personal care items, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements. From its base in Vineyard, Utah, this young company offers turnkey services with an emphasis on innovation and quality. The firm has been gaining attention thanks to its rapid growth and some high-profile projects.
“One thing that makes us unique is that, when we say we’re turnkey, we have everything in-house, literally, except for making bottles, blowing the plastic, and things like that. We have an in-house [research and development] lab, and we create all formulations from scratch,” states Co-founder and Principal Jordan Erskine.
“We have in-house project managers, packaging engineers, and a marketing team that we’re splitting into an agency. We can take someone’s idea for a skincare product or an oral care product and create it from scratch, get them a formula, and register it with the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] if that’s what the client chooses to do. We can walk them through that whole process,” he explains.
Dynamic Blending’s main services include product innovation, research and development, and manufacturing with additional services consisting of marketing, fulfillment, and brand design. The company specializes in hair, skin, oral, lip, and body care products, among other consumer goods.
“We do a lot of lotions and products in [the cosmetics] category. We also do OTC—over-the-counter—products. Fluoride toothpaste is OTC; sunscreens are OTC. We can do that as well,” says the company’s other Co-founder and Principal Gavin Collier.
The company does not have its own product line, preferring to develop products for clients instead. Customers sometimes hire Dynamic Blending for product research, while other clients already have a finished product they want to put into production. The manufacturing process can entail branding and design work.
Dynamic Blending has some huge clients. One notable partnership was with Tropicana, makers of orange juice and other beverages. Tropicana required assistance to remedy the well-known issue of the incompatibility of toothpaste and orange juice. Thanks to a common cleaning agent in most toothpastes, orange juice tastes awful after brushing your teeth. Given this, Dynamic Blending developed a unique product called Tropicana Toothpaste. It contained all the attributes of traditional toothpaste but was created without the ingredient that ruins the taste of orange juice.
Tropicana released this toothpaste in limited-edition format on November 1, 2021, to mark National Brush Day, an American event that follows Halloween and is intended to encourage healthy dental habits.
The Tropicana Toothpaste project garnered lots of publicity. Dynamic Blending was cited in Food & Wine magazine and other media outlets, further raising its profile.
While proud of the work with Tropicana, the company co-founders are quick to point out that Dynamic Blending serves a diverse clientele. “We work with companies on the Fortune 500 down to the moms and pops. We work with brands that are in Target and Walmart and brands that are up-and-coming,” notes Collier.
The company’s reach and capabilities are particularly impressive given the rather humble origins of the firm. Founded in 2015, it initially did research and development on formulations for cosmetics and skin-care products. Much of the company’s early work was conducted in Erskine’s basement. The business grew, and the co-founders added new services. They also sensed a lucrative market niche.
“We saw an opportunity to start offering what no other manufacturer was offering—low minimum order quantities. That opened up the door to not only smaller brands, but also to bigger brands looking for [that service],” recalls Collier.
Dynamic Blending will accept orders “from 1,000 to 2,500 units—which is extremely low in this industry,” adds Erskine.
The company’s rise was also facilitated by its full-service approach and culture of innovation. It helped that the co-founders were deeply involved in day-to-day operations from the start.
“There’s no red tape. I think our team members like our drive, our motivation to innovate in this industry. We’re there every day. We’re owners/operators. People can come into our office and ask us questions. Innovation is one of the hugest core values we have, and that’s what drives everybody forward,” he states.
Innovation “starts at the research and development level. We’ve designated specific chemists that work within our laboratories to create formulas that are innovative. We’ll send sample packs to major brands across the country, so they can see what we’re developing,” Collier adds.
This innovative spirit was also behind the company’s recent decision to enhance production by using robots.
“On manufacturing, we’re going to add robotics to our lines. In this industry, robotics is kind of rare. A lot of people [rely on] hand and manual labor. We’re always trying to set the bar higher,” says Erskine.
The company also likes to think outside the box when it comes to offering new services. As mentioned, the firm plans to create an in-house agency that will do marketing and design work for clients in the dietary supplements/food sector.
In addition to being innovative and nimble, Dynamic Blending adheres to very high quality standards. Having such high standards helped establish the company as a major player in the contract manufacturing sector.
“Even though we manufacture cosmetics and OTCs, we created our quality system to the drug standard. Every process and procedure we have is at that standard. We have a full quality management team and directors of quality and personnel that come from pharmaceutical, drug backgrounds,” states Collier.
Drug manufacturing standards are extremely stringent since faulty pharmaceuticals can cause death, disability, or other harm. Dynamic Blending currently has ISO 9001:2015, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NSF Organic certification, among its many accreditations, and is an FDA-registered facility. To maintain certification, it is routinely inspected by third-party examiners.
“Yearly, we’re audited by ISO and all those certifying bodies. One of the reasons we’re getting so many new customers coming to us is that they see and hear what we’re doing. I don’t know of any other cosmetic manufacturer that manufactures to the drug standard,” he says.
Clearly, Dynamic Blending is on the right path. Employment has risen from roughly 140 personnel last year to a little over 160 people. The company’s workspace has also expanded, from 60,000 square feet to roughly 126,000 square feet.
Whereas the company lab was once housed in a room that was “maybe twenty feet by fifteen feet,” the company now boasts a 12,000-square-foot research and development facility, according to Collier, who adds, “Huge things are happening.”
Such growth has attracted notice. In 2020, Dynamic Blending was listed in seventeenth place on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America, as compiled by Inc. magazine. It had a reported growth rate of 11,491 percent. That same year, it placed twenty-second on Utah Business magazine’s 2020 ‘Fast 50’ list of well-performing businesses in the state.
MountainWest Capital Network, described by Erskine as “a local network here in Utah, full of capital partners and equity groups,” also tabulates a list of fast-growing companies within the state. In 2021, Dynamic Blending topped this list, which compared the growth rate of Utah firms for a period of five years through to 2020. “We were number one on the list. That was really good for us,” he says.
Such recognition comes as Utah is increasingly viewed as a business powerhouse. One region in the state has been dubbed ‘Silicon Slopes’ due to the presence of so many technological businesses.
“Techie companies are investing billions of dollars into Utah, moving headquarters or opening locations here—Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe. Everyone is flocking here, but it’s cool to see us, a contract manufacturer, climbing the ranks,” notes Erskine.
As with every business across North America, Dynamic Blending had to cope with the COVID virus. When it began spreading in March 2020, the company instituted masking and gowning requirements and developed its own FDA-registered hand sanitizer which it gave to employees and first responders.
“Early on, we identified a supply chain risk associated with COVID, so we began sourcing domestically over two years ago—before COVID was even really a big thing. We quickly changed directions on how we were sourcing and who we were sourcing from,” adds Collier.
In addition to its planned marketing agency, Dynamic Blending might also expand into perfume and cologne manufacturing as moving into new markets is part of an overall growth strategy.
“We’re probably going to double our production lines within the next six months or so. We’re adding millions of dollars of new equipment over the next few months onto new lines,” says Erskine.
The co-founders have very ambitious goals. When asked to predict what the company will look like five years from now, Collier says, “I see us being over $150 million a year and one of the powerhouses in the West as far as manufacturing cosmetics. Jordan and I have experience with another contract manufacturer. We were there when they started. We want to be bigger than them. We know we are already growing much faster than they grew. The potential is there.”
