Olly (company)

In 2012, Olly founder Eric Ryan sold his Method company to Ecover.[2]

Olly was founded in 2013. Later, in 2014, Ryan worked with Target on a program that emphasized eco-friendly products. He had trouble selecting a brand for the health & wellness category.[2] Ryan stated that he "couldn't find a worse aisle than the nutritional supplement aisle," calling it "dated and filled with uninspiring brands and mediocre product."[3] Ryan and Harrington both recall being in a store in Boulder, Colorado, where "strangers would just come up to [them] and ask how many milligrams of zinc they should take."[2][4] Afterwards, the two began brainstorming on an idea for a vitamin company with the aim to "simplify" them and make its focus on "end benefit versus the individual ingredients."[4] Additionally, the brand caters to the millennial cohort.[3][4][5]

After meeting with Target executives, Ryan and Olly co-founder Brad Harrington began work on the vitamin company.[2] In April 2015, Olly debuted their first 20 products in Target stores.[2] In its first year operating, the company broke even in its first year.[2] Olly products were sold at Target exclusively in its first year.[2][4] Instead of focusing on their Olly.com website, the brand "enthusiastically embraced brick-and-mortar retailers as its main selling channel," and would come to be sold at other stores like GNC, CVS, and Albertson's, among others.[2][4] Unilever acquired Olly in 2019.[6]

In 2021, Olly's headquarters in San Francisco won a San Francisco Design Week award in the Interior Design category.[7]

Since Olly is focused on providing "ostensible benefits" rather than ingredients, their products combine supplements instead of selling them individually.[3]

Ryan sought a brand that would be user-friendly for the consumers; rather than using "typical round jars" or pills, Ryan employed square containers and gummy vitamins.[2][8] While most of the vitamins come in gummy form, some products are sold as softgels.[3] "Olly" was chosen as the name of the company as it was neither "pharma-sounding" or "folksy."[2] The packaging of the vitamins was also made to be bright and feature a smiley face on the O in Olly.[9] With focus set to a vitamin's benefits, Olly would emphasize "Restful Sleep" on its packaging, instead of labeling melatonin vitamins as such, for example.[9] Olly vitamins also include higher amounts sugar (up to 4 grams) than other vitamin brands, with Harrington stating, "It's kind of the price you have to pay to make people stay with it every day."[3][4]

Olly's products are primarily made in Indiana, as well as at some Florida-based facilities.[4]

In 2016, Harrington stated that 80% of Olly's customers are women, with their women's multivitamin being the company's second-best-selling product.[4] Olly's sleep product is the company's best-selling, as well as Target's best-selling in that respective category.[4] By 2018, Olly was exceeding $100 million annual revenue.[10]

Celebrity hair stylist Christian Wood has mentioned Olly as a "popular option" for hair supplements.[11]

Ryan has been described as a "disruptor" of the vitamins market by media outlets.[2][10] Harrington has concurred, stating "[Ryan] has spent a lot of time in mass merchants like Target, looking at different categories that might be ripe for disruption."[4]