Digest-able

Enzymedica sells 55,000 bottles of digestive-aid pills every month. The company plans to build a new manufacturing facility to handle the growth and earn better margins.

Tom Bohager is looking out for your stomach.

Bohager's Enzymedica dominates a small niche of the homeopathic world of enzymes to improve digestion. But like Americans' waistlines, that segment is growing at a healthy clip and Enzymedica has cornered prime shelf space in specialty health stores and supermarkets such as Whole Foods.

Port Charlotte-based Enzymedica grew revenues 4.5% to $11.6 million in 2008 and Bohager projects $12 million this year.

Enzymedica's enzymes are naturally occurring from plants such as papaya and pineapples. The company buys them in powder form, contracts with a manufacturer to encapsulate the stuff and packages and ships the pills with its labels from its Port Charlotte facility on U.S. 41.

But Bohager wants to improve the company's margins by encapsulating the enzymes himself and he's planning to do that in a new 5,000-square-foot facility in Port Charlotte. “It's our goal to do encapsulating in 18 months,” says Bohager.

The challenge to growing the business is explaining to prospective consumers why enzymes help in the digestive process.

To get good shelf space in stores, Bohager has created a series of audio CDs, video DVDs, books and samples that stores can hand out to customers for free. “The stores are craving that stuff,” Bohager explains. The more education that stores can give their customers, the more they're likely to sell, he says.

In addition, Enzymedica's 55 sales representatives travel all over the country to spread the enzyme gospel. Part of their job is to conduct one-on-one training of health-store employees. In addition, store employees can take an online course and if they pass the test they get a 60% discount off Enzymedica's wholesale prices. About 1,700 employees of health stores are going through the program now.

Of course, Enzymedica hasn't been immune from the economic downturn. It recently introduced a new line of pills that sell from $17.98 for a one-month supply. Its best-selling and most expensive bottle sells for $46.98.

Bohager is also sponsoring an organization called Autism Hope Alliance by spending more than $200,000 to help 100 underprivileged families to attend the Autism Treatment Center of America. Although some autism patients have benefited from taking enzymes, Bohager says it's not a marketing effort by itself. “You can't hang your hat for marketing on a social cause,” he says.

Bohager, who is president and owner of Enzymedica, moved to Port Charlotte in 1992 when he got married.

A native of Baltimore, he had been trained as a welder and had been working in New York. But metalworker wages were relatively low in Florida, so he went into business for himself. He first operated a carpet-cleaning business and then established a mortgage company.

Then, a couple friends who were in medical sales to health stores urged him to get into the business. In 1997, Bohager acquired a company that he would eventually rename Enzymedica. A West Palm Beach investor provided $150,000 in startup capital and the company gradually expanded. Since then, Enzymedica has expanded to supermarket chains such as Whole Foods that have homeopathic health departments.

Bohager, 42, has no plans to sell the company now, though he says he gets a half dozen legitimate offers. He has three sons and the eldest is nine years old and he hopes to pass on the business if any of them want to take over when they're grown. Until the last one says no, he's going to keep growing the business.