Tailwind Nutrition has moved into an expanded warehouse and production facility located near Durango-La Plata County Airport at 325 County Road 309A.
The location change was made to increase production as the company’s products continue to grow in popularity. Tailwind moved into the new location on Oct. 10 but is still waiting on permitting for the production portion of the building.
It’s been a busy year for the nutritional supplement company between launching its new active hydration electrolyte mix in July and now changing its manufacturing facility location, a move that was long overdue, company founders said.
“We outgrew our production facility three years ago, and it’s been a game of Tetris since,” said co-founder Jenny Vierling in a news release. “We’re thrilled to open our new facility with ample space for growth, keeping manufacturing and fulfillment here in Southwest Colorado.”
The new facility is about 14,400 square feet, which allows more space for shipping and production teams to work under the same space.
Tailwind has been growing at a rapid rate since starting in 2012. Operations Manager Brer Bales said sales have increased about 20% each year.
In addition, Tailwind ships internationally to 36 different countries and its products are sold in more than 1,000 different bike and rock climbing stores. It also sells its products through Amazon.
The company ships about 200 orders per day directly to customers and five to 10 pallets per week to Amazon and international partners. Each pallet is estimated to carry about 1,500 pounds of product.
“We see really similar growth every single year. And we have been making do with buildings that were too small for the last several years,” Bales said.
Amazon is the company’s largest sales channel with Colorado and California being the states where the company’s products are most popular.
Bales said the move not only gives Tailwind’s manufacturing more space but also efficiency.
Previously, production and shipping were housed in two separate buildings causing employees to drive product between the two. Employees would have to load a truck and drive it to the shipping building next door. The new building has space to facilitate both production and shipping under the same roof.
“It’s going to save us hours and hours every week to be at one facility,” Bales said. “I would say on average an hour and a half a day. We’re not playing Tetris and tripping over each other to do our jobs.”
Bales said the move will streamline manufacturing without having to outsource manufacturing to a location outside of the community. He said it was important to founders Jeff and Jenny Vierling to keep the facility in La Plata County.
“We were at a breaking point where if this facility hadn’t opened up, we were going to look at outsourcing our manufacturing,” Bales said.
With the addition of the new facility, Tailwind is looking to grow all of its sales channels and increase production.
The company is going to emphasize selling its products to the military and first responders as well as internationally. Bales said Tailwind has several military bases it wants to pursue.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
