The demand for essential oils, vitamins & minerals, and other natural personal care products is huge - and increasing every day. Natural Essentials has successfully found it’s place in this market, through their consumer-facing online store - Bulk Apothecary – and their manufacturing facility where they fulfill orders for themselves and other wholesale buyers across the country. They can sell one vial of essential oil to a customer, or gallons upon gallons to both mom and pop shops and large retail chains. Not only do they manufacture their own products – they handle design and printing of graphics in-house.
The business owner, Gary Pelligrino, Sr., has been ahead of the curve, starting his business in 1992 with the purchase of a bankrupt company Fashion 220 Cosmetics. In 1995, Gary bought out his partners and began Natural Essentials, Inc. When the Swine Flu hit in 2009, sales of hand sanitizer products exploded. Gary seized this opportunity and together with his sons Gary Jr. and Bryan began to expand the company to an incredible upward trajectory ever since. Through the combination of an immense amount of knowledge that Gary has of his business, the sophisticated levels of online marketing developed by his son Gary, Jr., through the consumer-facing website BulkApothecary.com, and the increased manufacturing production spearheaded by his son Bryan, sales have increased by 50% year over year (on average). His business is also good for the local economy; in 1995 when the business became Natural Essentials, Inc., Mr. Pelligrino had a team of 35 people working for him. Today, the number of employees has grown to 340 – talk about creating jobs in the hot market of Cleveland, in a booming industry!
For a company on a such a strong, seemingly unstoppable path forward, it’s no surprise that Mr. Pelligrino needed to purchase a larger space for his manufacturing and other operations under the Natural Essentials umbrella. Mr. Pelligrino has been a customer with FNB for over 5 years, so it made sense for him to start there to look for financing for his Commercial Real Estate purchase. When Commercial Banker Matt Ottoway realized that an SBA loan would be a great option to fund this loan, he introduced Gary to Tim Carson. Tim’s knowledge and expertise when it came to SBA lending helped ensure a successful closing for this SBA 504 loan in early 2018.
Mr. Pelligrino had this to say about working with Tim Carson and the team at FNB Small Business Finance:
Time is valuable. Tim and the team at FNB were able to give me the time I need to run my business day-to-day throughout the loan process – they handled everything in a very efficient and professional manner. What sets this institution apart is the relationship that I have developed with them over the years. Because of that personal touch, I trust them to take care of my business’ financing needs; with this SBA loan, they exceeded my expectations. The transaction was incredibly seamless!
Natural Essentials moved into their new building as of May 31, 2018. We are excited to see this business continue to grow and succeed, and we are happy to have been able to provide the financing for this deal!
