3 May 2012 --- Provexis plc opened a new manufacturing facility for its Science in Sport (SiS) sports nutrition business in Nelson, Lancashire, UK. 2011 Junior BBC Sports Personality of the Year nominee and Junior World Road Race Champion Lucy Garner and the UK’s top amateur cyclist and Time Trial Champion Michael Hutchinson, were in attendance along with key stakeholders and the SiS team. The official opening marks the re-launch of the SiS range, rebranded and simplified into 2 core ranges to make consumer choice easier: SiS GO for preparation and performance. SiS REGO for recovery.

The manufacturing facility, known as ‘The Innovation Centre’, is approximately 38,000 square feet and more than 50 people are employed at the site. Already delivering reduced costs and improved margins, the new factory is accredited to the Informed Sports quality assurance programme for sports nutrition products, suppliers to the sports nutrition industry and supplement manufacturing facilities. The programme certifies that all nutritional supplements, ingredients and sites that bear the Informed Sport logo have been tested for banned substances by the sports anti-doping laboratory, HFL Sport Science.

“Since acquiring SiS in 2011, we have focused our attention on further development of the science behind the sports nutrition products and building on the brand’s excellent reputation in endurance sports,” comments Provexis CEO Stephen Moon. “Today’s opening follows strong growth at the end of last year and reinforces our market leading position in sports nutrition for endurance athletes.”

The investment enables the business to respond to key growth opportunities in the sports nutrition market and deliver endurance nutrition to a bigger audience. The new factory will improve raw material handling and traceability, offering greater control over its supply chain, production processes and product quality. This will lead to improved efficiency and ensure excellent performance and increased responsive to future developments. A key installation of the new facility is the dedicated gel manufacturing line to support new SiS GO Plus Nitrates, a major new innovation for the sports nutrition market. GO Plus Nitrates has already been received strongly by elite athletes and has been tested with a GB Olympic and leading Pro-cycling teams. Further clinical trials and product performance development will continue throughout the year.

The SiS factory opening signifies an exciting time for the business, following the recent recruitment of Olympic Champion Rebecca Romero as brand ambassador and partnership deals with Rabobank and RaphaCondor pro-cycling teams.

“With our new products and innovation pipeline we are in a good position to maximise the opportunities in sports nutrition and enhance the scientific capability of the SiS business,” adds Stephen. “The brand re-launch and significant increase in marketing support will help us build on the momentum we’ve generated”. The SiS team has put a huge amount of effort into the new facility and brand re-launch and we’re delighted with how the business is progressing.”

Provexis also plans to develop further commercial opportunities for its Fruitflow product as part of its collaboration with DSM. This includes the potential integration of Fruitflow technology into existing SiS sports nutrition products, with further development and product testing in progress.