New Chapter of Brattleboro, VT hosted a seminar to help clear up any rumors over the recent investment of Procter and Gamble (P&G) in the company. “We’re here to share our truth,” said Paul Schulick, founder of New Chapter, with CEO Kyle Garner nodding at his side.

Schulick started off the session with a quote from Yoda that sums up his feelings on the acquisition: “The future is always in motion.” New Chapter is not new to change, he said. Along with evolving with the industry and continuously producing innovative supplements, the company itself had to evolve from a small, family-owned natural products shop in Vermont into the larger, successful company it is today. He said New Chapter is always “looking to the future, looking to change, looking for what’s next,” which is where P&G comes in.

Before coming to New Chapter, Garner was a market researcher at P&G and part of the group that decided to take a chance on New Chapter. P&G saw the growth market potential of the supplement industry and saw more and more people looking for these natural alternatives. “We asked ourselves, ‘Should we play in this industry?’” The team debated starting fresh, but Garner suggested looking to established companies that could be built off of and made more successful, businesses like New Chapter. “A lot of things we were looking for already existed in this little company in Brattleboro, VT,” he said. These things were innovation, science, and tradition, all of which P&G found in New Chapter.

“We were surprised, to say the least, when a busload of people from P&G showed up at our door,” said Schulick. But, he points out that he wasn’t too surprised; with the rate of growth and success the supplement industry has had over the last few years, he knew it was only a matter of time.

Both men reassured the crowd that only positive things can come of the merger. P&G is not looking to add their people to New Chapter, said Garner; P&G wants New Chapter to keep innovating and creating high-quality products, with P&G investing in new scientific research and innovation programs and opening doors for new advertising, resources, suppliers and ingredients New Chapter may not have had access to before. New Chapter will continue its commitment to the natural products industry as it has for over 30 years, said Schulick, but now it’s going to do so with a little support from P&G.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, May 2013