Bob Barrows Jr.
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Bluebonnet Nutrition Corp.
12915 Dairy Ashford
Sugar Land, TX, 77478
(281) 240-3332
https://bluebonnetnutrition.com
With a 40-year successful track record in sales, sales management and marketing within the publishing and supplement industries, Bob Barrows, Jr. has spent the past three decades as co-owner and head of sales and marketing of Bluebonnet Nutrition Corporation currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. As a key executive in this family-run business, Bob Jr. and the Barrows family have uniquely positioned this award-winning supplement brand with nutritional solutions for every age, gender, life stage, lifestyle and health concern, helping to catapult it to national and international prominence while also marshalling its unprecedented sales growth over the years.
Question: Bluebonnet is celebrating its 30th anniversary. How is the company commemorating this milestone?
Answer: Bluebonnet plans on celebrating our 30 years of success with many new advancements, all designed to further our goal of bringing the best nutritional supplements to market with the best support. While we have always cultivated our success by working closely with farmers, growers and suppliers to deliver groundbreaking formulas with uncompromising quality to natural food retailers and consumers alike, we have taken further steps this year to streamline our operations and make life easier and more efficient for our hard-working retail partners. The exciting advancements and upgrades we have made to our operations, service and education will hopefully ensure that the next 30 years are equally as great as our first three decades.
Question: What are the company’s most important highlights over those 30 years?
Answer: Bluebonnet Nutrition has made many great strides in the last 30 years since opening our doors in 1991. A decade after inception, we broke ground on a 150,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, NSF-certified cGMP (current good manufacturing practice) manufacturing and distribution facility with earth-friendly, pharmaceutical-grade systems and technologically advanced, in-house analytical labs setting new industry standards for others to follow. A few years later, that same manufacturing facility was kosher certified by KOF-K Kosher Supervision, one of the world’s most respected kosher certification agencies, making Bluebonnet one of just a few full-line kosher supplement brands on the market. Shortly thereafter, our facilities earned the coveted USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Organic certification that would adorn the labels of many of our whole food products. Plus, we implemented our own internal as well as third party non-GMO verification programs to meet the growing consumer demand for products without genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Yet, our most proud accomplishment over the past 30 years—other than launching some of the industry’s most groundbreaking new products and lines like Ubiquinol, ONE whole food-based, gender-specific multiples, Beautiful Ally age-defying beauty supplements, Target Choice whole food-based structure-function formulas and Intimate Essential sexual health and fertility supplements—has been our continual effort since inception to produce the cleanest, most eco-conscious supplement brand on the market. Our commitment to full transparency through our clean label and green initiatives (e.g., 30 percent energy consumption from solar/wind, sustainability, fair trade, organic, farm-to-table, etc.) has proven over the years to have no bounds.
Question: What are the company’s plans for the future?
Answer: We have recently gone live with our new interactive website delivering a fast and easy-to-navigate brand experience for retailers and consumers filled with informative content, lifestyle images and engaging product videos. This new website will provide retailers and consumers with up-to-date product information from anywhere in the world on any device. We have teamed up with virtual educational platforms like ExpertVoice and New Hope’s Spark Change and we’ve instituted a NutriLearn retailer training program with coveted speaker, Carl Germano, CNS, CDN to allow retailers to become real Bluebonnet experts. Plus, Bluebonnet has elevated transparency beyond just demonstrating our products’ purity, potency and authenticity through certifications. While refreshing the look of our brand, we will be applying enhanced QR (quick response) codes to our new eye-popping packaging, store shelf tags and marketing material so consumers can make better-informed buying decisions in-store, as well as help stores cross-sell and up-sell additional products. Additionally, retailers will now be able to track orders in real time, thanks to our new tracking system, enabling them to check on shipments whenever needed.
This past year has really tested all of our resolve to live a healthier lifestyle, which includes eating right, exercising and taking supplements to help support a stronger immunity. We are proud to have been able to keep 90 percent of our product pipeline fulfilled despite supply chain disruptions this past year, which is a testament to our deep-seated supply chain relationships. We will continue to strengthen those partnerships moving forward so that whatever nutritional solutions the marketplace demands now or in the future, our retailers and consumers can count on Bluebonnet to fulfill their needs.
We at Bluebonnet Nutrition are filled with gratitude for natural food retailers making us their go-to supplement brand. Because at the end of the day, being an award-winning supplement brand with a progressive mission to deliver real wholesome solutions for three decades requires true partners as our new tagline suggests … Bluebonnet & You, best together.
