Coseva, a rapidly growing nutraceutical company, has selected BatchMaster Web ERP to streamline its manufacturing operations, ensure regulatory compliance, and support its ambitious growth trajectory.
From Single Product to In-House Innovation
Coseva has been a force in the nutraceutical space for more than ten years. The company was founded by Rob Gulbrandsen in 2014 and initially relied entirely on contract manufacturers and selling through an influencer-based model.
Driven by a desire for greater control over product quality, Gulbrandsen made the strategic decision in 2020 to build their own facility. Since then, Coseva has rapidly transitioned to handling product development, manufacturing, bottling, shipping, and marketing entirely in-house.
The Challenge: FDA Pressure, Failed Systems, and Triple Data Entry
The need for a dedicated, industry-specific system became apparent during the cGMP certification process. The subsequent implementation of a legacy system designed for food manufacturing failed to account for the unique complexities of nutraceuticals, creating compliance risks and inefficiencies.
As confirmed by Polina Smith, Coseva’s Lab Director, the key challenges included:
- Inefficiency via Triple Data Entry: The lack of integration forced personnel to enter the same data up to three different times, in an Excel recipe sheet, the legacy system (for batch reports), and a separate Excel inventory sheet. “We were recording the same data in three different places,” Smith noted. “I’m hoping with BatchMaster we can just do it once and call it a day.”
- Inventory Instability and Data Loss: The unreliable nature of the non-industry-specific software became unmanageable. Smith stated that team members reported that “The data kept disappearing, and we would lose inventory randomly when they would do resets. This made tracking inventory and finding necessary records extremely difficult and sometimes just frankly impossible.”
- Lack of Control and Traceability: The previous, largely manual system lacked the comprehensive traceability, accountability, and quality controls required for a modern nutraceutical manufacturer, complicating audit preparation and its goal of achieving cGMP certification.
The Solution: BatchMaster Web ERP for Nutraceuticals
After being “extremely unhappy” with their previous non-specific solution, Coseva found BatchMaster ERP through an invitation to a webinar for the nutraceutical industry. The fact that BatchMaster was designed to handle formula-based manufacturing in a regulated environment was the decisive factor.
BatchMaster Web ERP was selected for its comprehensive functionality to manage quality-focused formula-based manufacturing, including:
- Formula and Batch Record Management: Providing a single, integrated source for all batch records, eliminating manual paper-based processes and the time-consuming problem of triple data entry.
- Inventory and Lot Traceability: Offering complete visibility into raw materials and finished goods, including features for expiration notifications, improved raw material planning, and seamless tracking for new, complex product lines.
- cGMP Compliance Support: Providing the systemic controls and processes needed to support their ongoing efforts to achieve cGMP certification and maintain regulatory excellence.
Looking Forward: Easing Growing Pains and Future Expansion
With BatchMaster Web ERP in place, Coseva is equipped to execute its aggressive growth plans, which include significantly increasing production volume, expanding its product line into new brands, and manufacturing new skincare products (including an acquired brand currently manufactured in South Korea) in-house.
The expected benefits of the partnership are to:
- Accelerate Growth: The system’s ability to reduce manual work and streamline batch processes will allow Coseva to do more with the same amount of manpower and handle greater capacity without proportional labor increases.
- Simplify Training and Onboarding: By making internal processes more consistent and foolproof, BatchMaster Web ERP will significantly ease the training and onboarding process for new personnel as the company expands.
Tanner Gulbrandsen, Quality and Compliance Specialist, anticipates the implementation will “help us to streamline our batching processes and make things more efficient and less paper-heavy. By making internal it to ease our growing pains.” The transition will be especially critical as the new skincare line expands its inventory.
