As National Enzyme Co. owner and CEO Tony Collier transitions toward retirement, he promoted Chief Operating Officer Charlie Amidon to president on Feb. 24. Amidon will continue to serve as COO. Collier, who was president for 35 years, maintains ownership of the company that employs over 130 and sells to a client base of 700 across 47 countries. With a reputation as a turnaround specialist, Amidon five years ago joined NEC, Forsyth’s largest employer producing enzyme blends and dietary supplements sold at GNC and other retailers. Since coming on, NEC revenue has nearly doubled to $40 million. Following a February electrical fire at one of its buildings, Amidon said NEC is making way for a $4 million manufacturing facility.
Collier Moves “The company was founded 83 years ago in Chicago by Dr. Edward Howell. He was a brilliant man, brilliant scientist, Ph.D., and about 35 or 36 years ago, Tony Collier, who also lived in Chicago at the time, went to work for Dr. Howell and ended up buying the company. … It was a lower cost of operation, and there were a lot of good, hardworking people around this area. … Last week, (Collier) celebrated his 65th birthday.”
Restructuring of Sorts “I’ve added the research and development department. … (Kim Crouse) was director of finance, but with Tony taking a step back, she now works with the bank. She was basically doing the (chief financial officer) position anyway, so these are more appropriate titles for what we’re doing and the size of the company. … It’s no secret that we do a lot of work for GNC. You won’t see our brand, but we provide a lot of enzyme blends. … What we are starting to focus on now is Europe. They are now more regulatory-friendly. In Norway, we have an exclusive distribution agreement with a distributor/doctor. He toured and talked to 800 doctors, and now that country is developing nicely. We are kind of going country by country and … Australia is where the real opportunities are at.”
Beyond Semiretired “I was pretty much semiretired when he asked me to come down and turn his company around. I got here Jan. 5, 2010, and … when I met with the auditing team, they said the company had about four months to live unless something dramatically changes. … I worked for Fisher Scientific as president of its logistics division. … I was executive vice president for HVL/Douglas Laboratories. When I started there, we were around $19 million [in annual revenue]. When I left, we were around $100 million. I was there for 11 years. At Cardinal Health, I was a regional vice president-middle Atlantic. … I’ve been in (information technology) for 35 to 40 years. I saddled up with a partner of mine I’d worked with for 10 years and we started (Global Nutritional Solutions). NEC became a customer, and we had 10 or 12 other customers.”
NEC On-boarding “After we installed the system [at NEC] in July 2009, I continued on as a consultant adding different software modules. … In December, I sat down with the owner, and he asked me for my analysis of the company because we had been pretty deep into everything. I said that he had a jewel here, but it hadn’t been carved out yet. I said he had some good people, but they didn’t have the experience to get to the next step. So, I said what I could do was come down for 90 days and help him diagnose every department, give him a work plan to get him to the next step. I didn’t realize at the time the financial strength of the company had weakened very badly. Over the Christmas period, he and his wife made up their mind that they wanted to change their management. I came down Jan. 4 for my consulting, and on Jan. 5, he offered me the position [of COO].
The Turnaround “Last year, we did nearly $40 million. When I got there, it was less than $20 million. … The people he had hired weren’t bad people, but they were way in over their eyebrows. I identified the required headcount to support the current business needs of the company. This resulted in rightsizing NEC and, in this particular case, meant a reduction in the workforce. ... Moreover, I addressed the profitability of how and who we were purchasing our raw materials from, and renegotiated lower pricing with our current vendors. … The company had a good reputation, and we had a good customer base. The problem was we didn’t exploit it. We didn’t go after things other than enzyme products. We do compete in the nutritional supplement segment, so we have adopted going after all business in the nutritional supplement industry along with our base of enzyme products.[[In-content Ad]]
