Buyer's guide
A practical guide for UK brand founders comparing contract manufacturers. Ten evaluation criteria, the questions to ask on the first call, and the red flags that should make you walk.
Choosing a contract manufacturer is one of the highest-leverage decisions in a supplement brand's first year. Get it right and you have a partner who scales with you, protects your compliance position, and produces what your retail buyers actually want. Get it wrong and you spend 18 months fixing things.
This guide is for UK brand founders comparing 3 to 5 contract manufacturers. It covers the ten evaluation criteria that matter, the questions we'd ask if we were in your position, and the red flags that should make you walk.
We're a UK contract manufacturer ourselves (Nootro Labs, BRCGS AA+ certified, Novel Foods dossier holder, bespoke only, 1,000-unit MOQ). We have a commercial interest in your decision. We'd rather you chose us because you understood the market, not because you didn't know what else to look for. This guide errs toward honesty.
Most UK supplement manufacturers hold BRCGS certification. Few publish their grade. Grades run C, B, A, AA, AA+, with AA+ being the top. Ask: 'What grade do you hold on BRCGS?' Anyone who dodges the question is below AA.
Manufacturers that hide MOQ are usually doing one of two things: quoting custom (good, suggests bespoke model), or padding (bad, they'll hit you with a high number once you've invested time). Look for manufacturers that publish MOQ clearly. Lowest published bespoke MOQ in UK is around 1,000 units per SKU, most are 10,000+.
Manufacturers straddling bespoke and white-label sell generic formulas with custom branding, not custom products. If your brand's positioning depends on formulation differentiation, you need bespoke, not private-label. Ask: 'Do you sell white-label or stock SKUs, or is every product built from scratch?'
'Free NPD' is never free, the cost is hidden in a per-unit markup you're locked into for the life of the product. Transparent NPD means a quoted, paid development project separate from production. Ask: 'How do you quote NPD, as a project fee or rolled into unit cost?'
If your product uses peptides, specialist botanicals, or other emerging regulated ingredients, Novel Foods is a hard regulatory blocker. Manufacturers without Novel Foods expertise will either flag the blocker at the wrong stage (after you've paid for NPD) or miss it entirely (product gets pulled post-launch). Ask: 'Do you hold Novel Foods dossiers? If not, how do you handle Novel Foods feasibility at NPD?'
If your target buyer is drug-tested, Informed Sport certification is table stakes. Not every manufacturer has the protocols in place: raw material screening, segregated production, per-batch testing. Ask: 'Can you produce Informed Sport certified products? What's your batch-testing workflow with LGC?'
Who owns the formulation IP matters if you ever want to move manufacturers. Bespoke manufacturers typically give the brand the formula IP (good). White-label and private-label manufacturers typically keep the formula IP (bad, you can't take the product elsewhere). Ask: 'Who owns the formula IP for a product developed with you?' Get the answer in writing.
Major UK retailers require supplier documentation packs: BRCGS certificates, QMS summaries, COAs per batch, stability data, claims substantiation, artwork compliance. Manufacturers that scramble to produce this after the fact cost you time at the buyer stage. Ask: 'What's in the standard documentation pack you provide for retail listings?'
Published lead times are aspirational. Ask for OTIF (On Time In Full) data, what percentage of orders actually ship on the promised date? Published benchmarks in UK supplement manufacturing run 90 to 99 percent depending on operator. Below 90 percent is a red flag for scale brands. Ask: 'What's your OTIF performance over the last 12 months?'
Good manufacturers support your growth: from 1,000-unit launch batches to six-figure monthly volumes. Ask about batch-size flexibility and whether pricing scales with volume. Locked-in high minimums are fine for established brands; terrible for founders testing retail. Ask: 'What's the batch size range you can run for a single SKU, and how does unit cost scale?'
Walk away from
'We can do anything.' Generalist claims usually mean a broker, not a manufacturer. Brokers add a margin layer without adding capability. Ask: 'Do you manufacture on-site or do you outsource to a partner?'
Reluctance to provide certification documents on first request. Legitimate manufacturers send the BRCGS certificate, QMS summary, and sample COAs as standard. Gatekeeping these suggests something's off.
'Free NPD' baked into unit cost. See criterion 4. The cost is real; it's just hidden in a higher per-unit price you're then locked into.
No published MOQ or lead time. Sometimes legitimate (truly bespoke operations). Sometimes evasive. Use the 'what's your published MOQ' question to distinguish, if the answer is vague, move on.
Dodging the BRCGS grade question. If they hold BRCGS and the grade is A or above, they'll tell you proudly. Dodging usually means grade B or below.
Unwillingness to provide OTIF data. Established manufacturers track this. Dodging means it's bad.
Promises of unrealistic lead times. 4-week turnaround on new NPD isn't credible. Formulation, sampling, stability testing, and production take time. Someone promising 4 weeks is either cutting corners or lying about the timeline.
First call
Print these. Bring them to every first call. Score each manufacturer's answers against each other, the comparison will surface weaknesses faster than any brochure.
Common questions from UK brand founders starting the manufacturer selection process.
Three to five is the sweet spot. Fewer than three and you don't have a real comparison. More than five and you're burning time for diminishing returns. Score each against the ten criteria above and the gaps become obvious fast.
Two to four weeks from first call to signed NPD agreement. Shorter means you didn't compare; longer means you're stuck in analysis. Good manufacturers respond to first enquiries within 48 hours and can issue a costed NPD proposal within a week.
Our NPD process starts from £3,000. For your first production run, budget from mid-four figures, depending on format, ingredients, packaging and batch size. We scope both separately so you can compare development and production costs clearly.
Yes. Any legitimate manufacturer will sign a mutual NDA at first conversation. Refusing to sign (or offering a one-sided version that protects them but not you) is a red flag.
Depends on IP ownership. If your first manufacturer gave you the formulation IP (bespoke model), yes, with some reformulation work. If they retained the IP (white-label or private-label), effectively no, you'd have to restart NPD elsewhere.
Optimising for headline unit cost at the expense of formulation differentiation, compliance, and IP ownership. A 5 percent lower unit cost doesn't help if you can't defend the product in retail conversations or move the formula elsewhere.
Send us your product concept and target market. We'll answer every question in the ten-question list upfront, send our BRCGS AA+ certificate and documentation pack, and give you a costed NPD proposal so you can compare like-for-like.
Related explainers: the BRCGS AA+ grade, our Novel Foods dossier holdings, and our Informed Sport capability.