Downtown Los Angeles-based nutrition supplement company Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has opened a $7 million research and development center on its Torrance manufacturing campus that will focus on sensory science and quality control to help develop new nutrition products.
Herbalife is a nutrition supplement maker with a global network of distributors for its products in more than 90 countries. The company posted nearly $5 billion in revenue last year.
In May, Herbalife’s president, Stephan Gratziani, became the new chief executive, succeeding longtime chief Michael Johnson, who is now executive chairman.
The new Torrance center is one of three research and testing labs Herbalife has in the United States. The company also has a lab in Lake Forest in Orange County, and the third is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Herbalife also has six research and development centers outside the United States: three in China and one each in Brazil, India and the United Kingdom.
Herbalife isn’t the only local major health science-related company that is adding research and development capacity in Southern California. Last week, biotech giant Amgen Inc. broke ground on a $600 million research and development facility on its Thousand Oaks campus.
Also, the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy is taking shape at a UCLA research park now under construction at the former Westside Pavilion shopping center in Westwood.
Construction began in February on the 8,600-square foot research and development lab space on the same campus as one of Herbalife’s main manufacturing centers. The lead construction contractor was Irvine-based LCS Constructors Inc., and the lead architect was TD Architects Inc., also in Irvine.
The lab now houses more than 40 researchers. It is equipped with advanced analytical technologies, including two different forms of liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, plasma mass spectrometry and DNA-based testing equipment.
According to the opening announcement, these technologies are part of Herbalife’s “seed-to-feed” quality management system, a fully integrated process that ensures ingredient traceability, purity, potency and safety from sourcing through to the final product.
“At Herbalife, our rigorous, science-backed approach fuels innovation and guarantees that every product meets the highest standards of quality, safety and effectiveness,” Troy Hicks, the company’s chief operating officer, said in the announcement. “With this new center of excellence, we’re accelerating our ability to develop breakthrough health and wellness solutions that our independent distributors can confidently offer to customers worldwide.”