packaging, with each day’s dosage separated into its own sachet. “We’re tackling a major pain point in the vitamin space, which is to provide a simple, personalised service to anyone,” co-founder Larah Loutati told Inside Retail.  “We built up a team of nutritionists, naturopaths and pharmacists and built a quiz based on the latest sciences to be able to recommend supplements based on each customer’s goals. We have 1.2 million possible combinations of our products, so the answers you get will be really unique. “To really feel the benefits from supplements you need to be consistent, so we’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for our customers to be able to take what they need each day.” And while the business’ internally formulated supplements can be purchased directly through the website, it also offers a subscription model with free delivery, where the same order will be sent out each month to ensure customers can easily stay the course. The business has been running since the end of 2019, and kicked off just prior to the first round of Covid-19 lockdowns. While the health sector has enjoyed significant growth during the last few years as a result of the pandemic, Vitable doesn’t have a solid comparison point. Instead, it hangs its hat on the fact its revenue and sales grew by more than 210 per cent in last year, that 500,000 people have taken its quiz, and that 50,000 unique customers have used its service over the last three years.  “What we’ve seen is that the online purchase of vitamins [across the industry] has more than doubled since 2019,” Loutati said.  “We can see people have really shifted their habits, and the online purchase of vitamins is still continuing to grow. It’s been an amazing acceleration of what was already a trend.” Born out of experience The initial concept for Vitable was born after Loutati found herself overwhelmed by the information and options available to her when trying to boost her energy levels, as well as the difficulty in getting a more personalised plan. Her goal with Vitable is to make everyone else’s journey more simple than her own.  “I just wanted to find a solution, I was extremely confused with the amount of information I could find, and I didn’t know what to do,” Loutati said. “I went to the chemist like a lot of people would, and just got lost in the thousands of similar bottles and names. I didn’t know what dosage I should use, and I just felt very overwhelmed.” At the time, Loutati worked for a startup that involved nutritionists, and she went to them for help. Her colleagues asked her questions about her diet, exercise routine and general lifestyle, and explained in plain English what nutrients she was probably missing, and what she should be taking to supplement her diet. “After a few weeks, I started feeling some benefits, and after a few months I felt like myself again. It was a major epiphany, because I realised there was this opportunity to simplify that whole experience for other people, and filter through that headache to provide a better solution,” Loutati said.  What’s next? The business currently ships across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Hong Kong, but has plans to continue expanding its offer internationally over the next 12 months.  “Australia is one of the biggest exporters of vitamins in Asia-Pacific,” Loutati said.  “One of our key growth pillars for the next year is to expand further internationally, but we’ll continue to focus on Australia. It’s our home, and it’s important that our products are manufactured here because the safety regulations we have here create high-quality products.”