Midlands-based healthtech firm Rem3dy Health has taken its personalised nutrition business into mainstream retail, with its Nourished brand’s Formulaic range now being sold through market retailer Boots.
Until now, the Birmingham-based company has operated through direct-to-consumer (DTC) distribution. That changes with the Boots launch, which begins online and will extend into selected physical stores over the coming weeks in the UK and Ireland.
Six locations are included in the initial rollout, among them stores in Westfield White City (London), Trafford Centre (Manchester), Eldon Square (Newcastle), Meadowhall (Sheffield), Bluewater (Dartford), and Liffey Valley (Dublin). The Dublin opening marks the brand’s first retail presence in Ireland.
“When I invented the world’s first truly personalised nutrition product, my mission was to transform how people understand and care for their health. Over the past five years, more than two million people have completed the Nourished quiz, allowing us to build one of the most comprehensive datasets on consumer wellness needs in the UK,” highlights Melissa Snover, Founder and CEO of Rem3dy Health.
Bringing made-to-order into retail
For the healthtech firm, a business built around custom manufacturing rather than mass production, the move into Boots is not a small one. The retailer’s shelves are designed for standardised products, not made-to-order formulations.
Rem3dy Health’s answer to that tension sits in its factory. The company uses 3D printing to build layered “nutrient stacks” in the form of gummies, combining up to seven active ingredients in a single product. Instead of asking customers to buy several supplements, it compresses them into one.
But that approach has required capital. A few months ago, Rem3dy Health secured a £500,000 SAFE investment from Future Planet Capital Regional via the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund as part of a broader £9 million raise, with Suntory, ADM, and UPSA among the backers.
By that point, the Midlands-based firm had raised £19 million in total, established three factories, and secured 29 approved patents. The funding was earmarked to expand manufacturing capacity, increase production, and grow its presence in the US and Asia.
As of now, production is anchored at the company’s GFSI-certified facility in Birmingham, using its proprietary and patented hardware, software and materials technologies. The products are vegetarian, sugar-free and gluten-free, packaged without plastic, and made using food-derived ingredients without artificial additives.
Whether online or in-store, the customer experience starts with Nourished’s AI-powered “Find Your Formula” quiz. Shoppers are steered through a digital system that generates a recommended formulation based on their own inputs. In Boots stores, this same process is handled through touchscreens.
The range is built around familiar concerns rather than niche ones, including sleep, energy, digestion, immunity, cognitive function and menopause. The difference is not the categories, but the way the products are assembled.
What remains to be seen is whether that difference will change how people buy supplements in a pharmacy. Boots gives Rem3dy Health access to foot traffic. It also puts a manufacturing-led idea into a retail environment that has spent decades optimising for the opposite: uniform products, simple choices, and fast transactions.
A market ripe for disruption
The global dietary supplements market was worth nearly $152 billion in 2021 and, after a pandemic-driven surge that pushed sales above $220 billion in 2020, is projected to reach around $300 billion by 2028.
Long-growing and further accelerated by COVID-19, the sector now faces a potential shift as 3D printing promises more personalised and on-demand products, but it may also complicate matters by introducing new challenges around cost, regulation, and manufacturing scale.
One indication of how that shift could play out is emerging from academic research. A research team from Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), University of Foggia, and Jiangnan University reported in the Journal of Food Engineering that it developed 3D printed gummy supplements enriched with vitamins and minerals using 3D printing.
These gummies were produced from a starch- and agar-based gel and are designed to deliver precise, customizable nutrient doses tailored to individual needs. The study found that the gummies retain their structure and nutrient quality, are easy to chew, and remain stable for several hours after production, supporting automated or on-demand distribution.
Elsewhere, leading US skincare brand Neutrogena introduced a line of personalised 3D printed skin health supplements at CES 2023. Dubbed “Skin360 SkinStacks,” the products were created using data from the company’s digital skin assessment tools, which generated customised nutrient blends for individual users.
Although the system launched with only five goal categories, each stack could be adjusted with different vitamins and minerals. The launch signalled that 3D printing was moving from experimental nutrition toward data-driven, on-demand consumer supplementation.
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Featured image shows 3D printed nutrient stack. Photo via Rem3dy Health.
