Le Bleu has been a top provider of bottled water to consumers, offices, retailers, high-end restaurants and resorts for more than two decades. Now top management is helping to nurture a fast-growing dietary supplement company, Nature’s Pearl. Keith Regan learns how the company is setting itself apart by embracing scientific studies on its muscadine grape supplement and using human networking to spread the word.
For 20 years now the Le Bleu brand name has meant ultra-pure, steam-distilled bottled water for customers in North and South Carolina and many around the world who drink Le Bleu Premium, privately labeled by upscale resorts such as the Waldorf Astoria.
Le Bleu vice president Brock Agee says that supporting 4,000 private-label customers—with help from an in-house graphics designer who can customize bottles in small batches—helps set the company apart from larger competitors. “We’re not Coke or Pepsi,” he says. “We have to find niches that they don’t do. We’ll create 20 cases for a specific customer, and that’s something that doesn’t work into their business model.”
Le Bleu, based in Advance, North Carolina, also services some 60,000 customers in the Southeast with home and office delivery of 5-gallon bottles and coolers, as well as Free Trade–certified coffee. Le Bleu Premium bottled products—packaged in award-winning cobalt-blue bottles—include 12-ounce, 20-ounce, 1-liter and 1.5-liter bottles that are found in grocery chains such as Whole Foods and Food Lion and are sold through food distribution companies such as Sysco. The company uses the Waterflex software package to help manage delivery routes and operate at the highest efficiency possible. This is critical in the face of rising fuel prices. “Good product and on-time delivery are what’s kept us alive for 20 years,” Agee says.
While the water business is not immune to economic recession, it is somewhat insulated by the fact that water is essential to human life, he adds. “The human body doesn’t call for soft drinks, but it does call for water.”
The focus on health helped lead to the formation of Nature’s Pearl, a related company for which Agee serves as president. When Le Bleu founder Jerry W. Smith began searching for a natural alternative to medication for high cholesterol, he learned about the powerful properties of the muscadine grape seed. “When Jerry saw what it did for his own health, he started Nature’s Pearl,” says Agee.
Starting in 2008, Nature’s Pearl embraced a multi-level marketing format similar to that of The Pampered Chef or Mary Kay and is now a rapid growth story. Approximately 2,800 independent distributors now sell the supplement in 48 states, all of them brought on board within the past 24 months.
Agee believes the key engine to that growth is the clinical studies Nature’s Pearl has done on its products, which the company says contain more than 100 different antioxidants. “Nature’s Pearl is the only muscadine grape supplement that has been subjected to human clinical trials,” he says. “The expense is well worth it because our customers can trust that our product has been shown to have a measurable effect on the cardiovascular system.”
Researchers at Wake Forest University put the product through clinical trials to test its ability to improve cardiovascular health. The researchers found that Nature’s Pearl muscadine extracts had a measurable effect on vasodilatation of the brachial artery (the major blood vessel of the upper arm) in men and women with cardiac risk factors. Additional in vitro research has also shown that Nature’s Pearl significantly inhibited the growth of seven types of cancer cells, including breast, brain and prostate cancer as well as leukemia.
Nature’s Pearl has aggressively supported its sales network, offering video brochures that detail the benefits of the supplement and letting independent distributors offer free 30-day supplies to all first-time customers. “The free-trial format makes it easy for anyone to sell, even if they’re not a salesperson,” Agee says, noting that the company has filled some 4,300 free-trial offers in the first six months of the program.
Production is handled at a 120,000-square-foot facility in Mocksville, North Carolina, where commercial dryers, freezers and coolers are used in the process that transforms the raw grape skins and seeds into the finished supplement. “We manage the entire process and supply chain, which gives us strong controls and quality oversight,” Agee notes. All the raw material is sourced locally from farmers who tend a crop that Native Americans were known to use long before settlers arrived.
“The muscadine grape only grows in the southeastern United States, so our supply is 100 percent local,” says Agee. The raw material was actually made from what was considered waste on farms that grew grapes. The skins and seeds of the grapes that had been crushed to make wine, juice or jellies were typically reused as fertilizer. Instead, Nature’s Pearl now has long-term supply agreements in place with many farmers. “We’re using 100 percent of this rich fruit now, instead of throwing away 90 percent of these valuable antioxidants,” says Agee. “We estimate we’ve got 50 percent of all the muscadine skins and seeds in the Southeast. With the muscadines we currently have sourced, we could build the company into a $100 million brand.”
The Nature’s Pearl brand has been extended into an organic, chemical-free skin care line. Muscadine20 Antioxidant Skin Care now features five products and will soon be expanded to include all-natural shampoo, toothpaste and other products.
The natural focus fits with the overall Le Bleu philosophy. The company sources its water locally as well, using no plastic to shrink-wrap cases of bottled water. Le Bleu’s green initiative doesn’t stop there. Only recyclable cardboard and 100 percent recyclable plastic in the bottles are utilized. “One of the things we’re most proud of is that we source virtually everything locally—well over 98 percent of our materials come from within the US, and from our region. The very best way to be green is to buy locally.” http://www.lebleu.com
