Nature’s Best Expands With Brea Sublease
Health foods distributor Nature’s Best has added 60,000 square feet in an expansion of its Brea headquarters, bringing its total space there to just more than 300,000 square feet.
“The expansion is due mainly to huge growth in a couple of areas of the health foods industry,especially in refrigerated and frozen-food products,” said Randy Lindberg, the company’s president. “But we’re seeing industry growth across the board.”
The privately held company plans new hiring in the next year but wouldn’t disclose how many people it plans to add to its current Orange County payroll of 280 people. Lindberg said sales for the current year are on target to reach $160 million, up $10 million from the previous year.
In sales, Nature’s Best ranks first among natural-foods suppliers in the Western U.S. and third nationwide behind St. Augustine, Fla.-based Tree of Life Inc. and Dayville, Conn.-based United Natural Foods Inc.
“There are only a handful of companies nationwide that are full-line natural wholesalers,” Lindberg said.
Some of the company’s brands include Celestial Seasonings teas and Power Bars.
Other products include groceries, nutritional supplements, personal care, bulk and institutional goods and non-food products such as cosmetics. The company sells to independent natural and health food stores, natural product superstores, supermarkets and drug stores.
The Brea expansion, at 105 S. Puente, is a sublease from neighboring Centis Plastics, with Costa Mesa-based The Brookhollow Group as the ultimate landlord.
Nature’s Best also has distribution centers in Hawaii and in Kent, Wash., which employ an additional 20 people.
The company, founded by Lindberg’s family in 1969 and still a family-owned business, distributes more than 18,000 products to more than 1,200 customers in 11 Western states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. n
