Annual sales exceed 2 million tablets! Customized highly compatible multivitamin tablets for a German dietary supplement brand

1. Demand Decomposition and Customized Solution

In the early stage of cooperation, we conducted in-depth communication with the customer through multiple offline and online meetings, clarifying their core needs: not only to achieve the scientific ratio of 12 vitamins and 8 minerals, but also to strictly comply with the upper limits of vitamin A (≤1.5mg per tablet) and vitamin D (≤5μg per tablet) specified in Germany's Food Supplements Ordinance. Meanwhile, the tablets needed to be compatible with the automatic dispensing machines commonly used in German supermarkets (requiring qualified hardness and disintegration), and due to the tight window for supermarket entry, the delivery cycle needed to be controlled within 55 days.

In response to the customer's demands for "strong compliance, high adaptability, and fast delivery", we set up a dedicated team (including compliance experts, formula engineers, packaging designers, and supply chain specialists) within 24 hours, and issued a detailed plan including timelines for each link (10 days for formula optimization, 7 days for testing, 5 days for packaging design, 20 days for production, and 8 days for logistics), which was highly recognized by the customer.

2. Formula Compliance Optimization and Testing

To ensure the formula complied with German regulations, our compliance expert team first sorted out Germany's Food Supplements Ordinance and relevant EU standards, clarifying the content limits and labeling requirements for each ingredient. Then, formula engineers adjusted the addition amounts of vitamin A and D (finally determining 1.2mg of vitamin A and 4μg of vitamin D per tablet) based on adults' daily nutritional needs, while optimizing the ratio of vitamin C, B vitamins, and minerals such as calcium and iron to ensure nutritional balance.
After the formula was determined, we focused on tablet adaptability tests:

1. Hardness Test: The proportion of excipients (microcrystalline cellulose, lactose) was repeatedly adjusted using a professional hardness tester, and the tablet hardness was finally stabilized at 6-8kg (compatible with automatic dispensing machine requirements and preventing breakage during transportation).
2. Disintegration Test: The human gastric environment was simulated to ensure the tablets completely disintegrated within 30 minutes, ensuring the absorption of nutrients. Both tests passed the verification of German third-party testing institutions at one time.

3. Minimalist Eco-Friendly Packaging Design

The packaging design balanced German environmental concepts and supermarket display needs:

•Materials: Degradable paper packaging boxes and food-grade recyclable HDPE bottles were used, with the bottle thickness reduced by 20% to reduce material consumption.
•Design Style: Adopting a minimalist style with a white background and the customer's brand green LOGO. The front side marked the core selling point of "one tablet a day", and the back side clearly presented the German-English bilingual nutrition fact sheet (including the content of each ingredient and the proportion of daily recommended intake), with EU food-grade certification marks added.

After submission, the packaging plan passed the review of the customer, Metro, and dm with only one revision, effectively shortening the design cycle.

4. Assistance in EU EFSA Certification Materials

EFSA certification is an important endorsement for products entering the EU market. Our compliance team provided full assistance to the customer in preparing materials:

1. Collated formula sheets (including ingredient source certificates), third-party test reports (heavy metals, microbial indicators), and production process descriptions.
2. Wrote nutrition claim reports in accordance with EFSA requirements (e.g., "Vitamin C supplementation helps collagen synthesis"), ensuring the expressions complied with EU specifications.
3. Assisted the customer in submitting certification applications, tracked the review progress in real time, and supplemented materials promptly. Finally, the EFSA certification materials were prepared in only 12 days, helping the product pass the supermarket qualification review smoothly.

5. Rapid Production and Logistics Delivery

To achieve delivery within 50 days, we adopted a "parallel operation" model—formula testing and packaging design were carried out simultaneously, and packaging production was seamlessly connected with tablet production:

•Tablet Production: German imported tablet pressing equipment was used, achieving a daily production capacity of 50,000 tablets. At the same time, hardness and disintegration were sampled and tested every 2 hours to ensure stable quality.
•Logistics: Cooperation with a local German logistics provider was established in advance, and the "air transportation + customs clearance in advance" method was adopted (preparing certificates of origin and compliance documents in advance), shortening the customs clearance time from the conventional 10 days to 5 days. Finally, the first order (100,000 tablets) was delivered 5 days ahead of schedule and smoothly sent to the customer's warehouse.

6. Follow-Up Services and New Product Development

After the product entered supermarkets, we continued to provide support: regularly analyzed sales data from Metro and dm, and assisted the customer in optimizing display positions and promotion strategies. In response to consumers' feedback of "hoping to add intestinal health functions", the customer proposed a demand for developing multivitamin tablets with added probiotics (Bifidobacterium animalis). We have launched formula R&D, planning to add 1 billion CFU of probiotics per tablet to the original formula, and preliminary formula testing has been completed.