About Coremix Capital
The company's story began two decades ago, as husband-and-wife founders Marty Rifkin and Kate Jones were busy building Avid Health one small health food store at a time. In the insanely competitive business of dietary supplements, just keeping up with competitors was an exhausting, everyday challenge. Time, resources, customer demands—the juggling never stopped.
Then one day Kate noticed her 2-year-old daughter putting a toy in her mouth at a playgroup and then hand the toy off to one of her friends, who then also put the same toy in his mouth. Soon, it seemed as if every kid there had gummed the same toy.
Kate & Marty, meanwhile, saw what any entrepreneur would see—opportunity. A problem needed solving, and their solution was as profound as it was basic—make nutrition taste good so kids like it. Simple as that! "Sometimes,” says Marty, Avid's CIIO (Chief Imagination and Innovation Officer), "you can take a good idea and ruin it with complexity.” This simple solution to a basic consumer demand became the corporate philosophy and cornerstone of all further development.
"A problem needed solving, and the solution was as profound as it was basic—make nutrition taste good."
— Marty Rifkin
Executing the idea of good taste was far more complicated, of course: research, testing, retesting, and then testing again. But to make a great idea a reality, the one indispensable requirement, along with passion, smarts and brutal self-appraisal, is the willingness to move quickly and stick with it.
"Growing up, my dad always told me, 'he who hesitates is lost,'"recalls Kate. "We knew we had a great idea, so we didn't hesitate. We put full resources behind the project."
Called L'il Critters®, the product line took over the children's market and became the number one children's vitamin in the country. Made with natural colors and flavors, it aligned with Kate and Marty's core belief that they wouldn't ask customers to give their children anything that they wouldn't give their own. It was the kind of beyond-the-bottom-line integrity that eventually boosted their bottom line when it became a distinguishing part of the brand.
But Kate and Marty didn't stop there. Openness to new ideas was now embedded in company culture. So when parents tasted their kids' L'il Critters®, liked them, and then asked the company what dosage they should take, Avid Health pounced with another idea: VitafusionTM, a brand marketed to adults. It soon outsold the successful children's line. Avid Health eventually developed over 150 products within multiple brands with mass distribution in all food/drug/mass/club out there. It grew, even in the recent recession, at annual rates of almost 40 percent.
