Inside a Supplement Factory Beloved by Influencers and Doctors

Business Insider visits Thorne's supplement factory where creatine, electrolytes, and magnesium are being tested and shipped.

Published on Feb. 21, 2026

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Business Insider reporter Hilary Brueck visited Thorne's supplement factory in Summerville, South Carolina, where raw materials from around the world are arriving by the pallet and being tested, mixed, and packaged for shipment. The story explores the booming supplement industry, Thorne's focus on quality control, and the challenges doctors face as patients increasingly self-direct their healthcare through supplements.

Why it matters

The supplement industry has been quietly expanding its manufacturing footprint across the US, racing to meet surging demand fueled by influencers, personalized medicine, and a fast-growing online market. This story provides a rare inside look at the operations of a major supplement manufacturer and highlights the industry's lack of regulation, the potential risks for consumers, and the struggles doctors face in guiding patients through the supplement minefield.

The details

Kenzie Goer, senior vice president of planning and distribution at Thorne, showed the reporter around the company's newest warehouse in Summerville, South Carolina. The facility is temperature and humidity-controlled, and workers in full-body suits prepare products in sealed mixing rooms. The reporter saw pallets of ingredients like creatine monohydrate and Indian barberry, as well as flavoring agents for electrolyte products. Thorne's newest warehouse, which opened in 2023, doubled the company's manufacturing capacity to 549,000 square feet.

  • Thorne's newest warehouse opened in 2023.
  • The global supplement market is now estimated at $100 to $200 billion and is growing rapidly, with the US accounting for about one-fifth of worldwide demand.

The players

Kenzie Goer

Senior vice president of planning and distribution at Thorne.

Claire Critchell

Thorne's senior vice president of operations.

Nathan Price

Thorne's chief science officer.

Al Czap

Founder of Thorne, a former supplement salesman who started the company in 1984 to address poor industry manufacturing standards.

Ken Rowe

Thorne's chief R&D officer and former VP at Nestlé.

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What they’re saying

“It's just been an explosion of people being like, 'I should probably pay attention to my health a little bit more and think about it proactively and take it a little more into my own hands.'”

— Nathan Price, Chief science officer, Thorne (Business Insider)

“Kudos to them because they didn't screw it up.”

— Al Czap, Founder, Thorne (Business Insider)

“I struggle with the supplement industry, not because I don't believe that some supplements have value, some certainly do, but I just feel like the incentive structures are all geared toward forcing companies, individuals, people in that industry who are marketing supplements to be dishonest.”

— Matt Kaeberlein, Scientist who studies the biological mechanisms of aging, and cofounder of Optispan (Business Insider)

“The supplement brands and supplement shillers and influencers can make any sort of claims they want, whether it's performance, fat loss, libido. They're not formulating, testing, verifying anything. They're out there cherry-picking studies. They're using animal data that's stretched into human claims.”

— Dr. Haleem Mohammed, Chief Medical Officer, Gameday Men's Health (Business Insider)

What’s next

The judge in the case will decide on Tuesday whether or not to allow Walker Reed Quinn out on bail.

The takeaway

This story highlights the booming supplement industry, Thorne's focus on quality control, and the challenges doctors face as patients increasingly self-direct their healthcare through supplements. It raises concerns about the lack of regulation in the supplement market and the potential risks for consumers, as well as the struggles doctors have in guiding patients through the supplement minefield.