FUTURE PROOF/Sona Healthcare:Producing quality products for specific medical conditions is a healthy way to avoid the worst of the recession

SONA FOUNDER, Ohan Yergainharsian, has always taken the long view of the firm’s development and never rushed its growth.

Yergainharsian met his Irish-born wife, Yvonne, in 1975 when they were both working in the Middle East. Sona was founded shortly after their return to Ireland during the recession of the 1980s.

His first experiences of Ireland were cast in times of financial trouble and the lessons from then have helped guide his business through the current recession. At a time when many businesses are downsizing, Yergainharsian is contemplating the expansion of his company’s manufacturing operations in Dublin.

When he arrived here in the 1980s the market for health foods and nutritional supplements was in its infancy. Initially Yergainharsian began importing foods that were well established among health-conscious European consumers.

However, he quickly found that Irish consumers ran a mile from products such as soya sausages. He also discovered that when it came to nutritional supplements, Irish people preferred them as tablets. Yergainharsian made a quick exit from food and turned his attention to developing supplements in tablet form instead. He made a number of key decisions at the outset that have stood to him since.

The first was doing everything by the book in terms of following regulatory protocols and jumping through the necessary hoops to secure a manufacturing licence from the Irish Medicines Board.

The second was only making products that meet a specific health need. For example, calcium and folic acid supplements.

The company has never dabbled in what Yergainharsian describes as “airy fairy products that promise eternal youth or instant weight loss”.

This seems to have paid off at a time when consumers have been cutting back on their spending.

“The products being hardest hit are those at the discretionary end of the spectrum,” he says. “If someone needs calcium or folic acid for health reasons it is an essential buy, not a choice. As a result our turnover has not taken a big hit.”

Over the years Yergainharsian has tended to buck prevailing trends. When outsourcing manufacturing to cheaper countries became the norm here, he decided not to follow.

“Financially, it was easy to see why people were doing it, but for me it was about quality and having control. Now things are turning full circle. Manufacturing costs in Ireland are coming back into line and, all going to plan, we will expand our manufacturing facilities in 2013. I am beginning to feel things are stabilising here and that the economy has turned a corner.”

Yergainharsian built up his business shop by shop. Initially he sold through health food stores and then moved on to pharmacies. Recognising that Ireland could only provide so much growth, his strategy was always to build for the future by moving into the export market.

Exports are growing steadily and now account for around a third of sales and the company has customers in 23 countries including Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kazakhstan and a number of former Soviet countries.

In the case of these new markets, Sona develops products to meet the specific nutritional deficiencies prevailing there.

Up to quite recently Sona products were sold in traditional brown glass jars but the company is now in the throes of rolling out a new, more contemporary look which will take around two years to complete with over 140 products involved in the changeover.

This is designed to keep the brand fresh in existing customers’ minds and give it appeal for new, younger consumers.

Low staff turnover and a well established core team has provided Sona with important stability over the years, Yergainharsian says. “We have a very flat structure and are not into titles. I’m general dog’s body and my daughter, Sona, who has joined me in the company, is deputy general dog’s body. We do whatever needs to be done.”

The company currently employs 24 people and this will rise if next year’s planned expansion goes ahead.

“Our philosophy has always been steady as she goes,” Yergainharsian says. “We didn’t make loads of money during the Tiger, but we didn’t lose it either. Yes, we have made cuts and hard decisions like everyone else.

“For example, we cut our advertising budget and channelled what we were spending into charities in the form of sponsorships instead. We also outsourced our distribution some time ago so we have very streamlined logistics and no longer issue invoices or statements from here.”

Big players such as Seven Seas and Holland Barrett dominate the nutritional supplements business, but this has never bothered Yergainharsian.

“There is room for all of us,” he says. “I’m confident about the quality of my products and I’m happy with our pricing which reflects what it costs us to make them and with the value for money we offer.

“For example, we don’t do discounts. Others reduce their prices by 50 per cent. Now what does that say?”