April 1, 2025
Colin Watts – CEO – Thorne
How Private Equity Reboots Companies Into Billion-Dollar Brands, Colin Watts – CEO Thorne
Listen on:
The vitamin and supplement market has exploded in popularity and consumers are overwhelmed with all the claims they are bombarded with online, instore and on TV. The good news—people are more interested in their health and wellness now more than ever. However, they are growing more confused and even skeptical about product choices and who they should trust.
At the epicenter of this explosion is Thorne, a science-backed health and wellness provider, trusted and used by over five million consumers, 50,000 healthcare professionals, and 1,000 sports teams. We checked in with CEO Colin Watts to see how the company is doing, since being acquired by top consumer growth private equity group L Catterton, who brought Colin in to reboot Thorne into a billion-dollar company.
Listen in to this transformation-in-progress episode of The Reboot Chronicles Show, with a CEO back-stage pass, with insights on how to build trusted brands, increase quality while scaling, improving customer loyalty, why the health and wellness sector is growing and where we are headed next.
From Prevention To Performance
One of the major changes that propelled the wellness industry forward was the shift of the primary consumer. Colin notes “Historically I was trained to focus a lot on boomers because the boomers were moving the market.” Boomers had a focus on using supplements to try and prevent the effects of getting older. As of 7 to 8 years ago, the primary consumer has switched to millennials and Gen Z. Colin even notes that “They are spending more out of their wallet against the supplement category than the boomers were.” However the difference is they are not thinking of supplements as a prevention option, but as a performance option. This change in consumer and consumer perspective is where Thorne, among other brands, has been able to shine its brightest.
Quality Is The Proposition
Following the shift in consumer and consumer perspective, Colin has decided to shift Thorne to being a consumer-first brand. Up until this change was being made, they had primarily worked with professionals, athletes, sports teams, and healthcare professionals. Now they want to open the doors to the general consumer, with the goal of maintaining that professional level of service. “Product is the proposition,” says Colin, “That is why we have more people in R&D than we do in marketing.”
What’s Next For Thorne
A whole focus shift is not the only thing changing for Thorne though, Colin has a list of changes and expectations for Thorne moving forward. This list includes things like modernizing packaging(Saying goodbye to the white bottles), launching new products that will drive expansion like creatine products, as well as exploring beauty and wellness tech.
They are backing this all up by also increasing efforts to maintain the level of trust they have garnered over their lifetime. All the innovations are worthless, if no one trusts them enough to use their services, which is why Thorne is also increasing partnerships with professionals so they are always learning and able to give the best information they can.
