What’s unusual about us isn’t where we are. It’s where we started.
1931 — One of the first natural-food stores in America.
Long before “wellness” was a market, our family was in it.
In 1931, out of a garage in San Francisco, Lloyd Landstrom and George Merriam began selling diabetic specialty foods to friends with special dietary needs. Their company, Landstrom, grew from a single-store operation into one of the largest health-food distributors in the United States, with sister distributors in Keene, Texas; Collegedale, Tennessee; and Camden, New Jersey.
That’s where Richard Merriam — George’s son and GCI’s founder — learned the business. He spent his early career expanding Landstrom’s distribution across the country before earning an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley and completing two years of training at Standard Oil of New Jersey.
In 1970, he came back to the family trade and started something of his own.
1970 — A trucking company that became an ingredient supplier.
GCI Nutrients began as a trucking operation, moving ingredients between California, New York, Tennessee, and Texas. Within a few years it had become an importer, and for more than two decades GCI was one of the principal U.S. suppliers of bulk and encapsulated evening primrose oil.
By the late 1980s, Richard had expanded the range into what was then a brand-new category. Today we call those products nutraceuticals. At the time, they didn’t even have a name.
1995 — We helped write the standards.
When GCI began bringing standardized European herbal extracts to U.S. customers in the early 1990s, the supplement industry was full of bulk powders making claims that nobody could really verify. There was no agreed-upon way to compare one supplier’s Echinacea to another’s. Practitioners couldn’t get consistent results. Buyers couldn’t compare like for like.
In 1995, GCI published Your Guide to Standardized Herbal Products — the first reference book to set specific scientific standards for herbal ingredients. It helped move the industry from non-standardized bulk herbs to standardized, characterized extracts that practitioners could rely on.
That commitment to standardization is still the through-line of everything we sell. Every branded ingredient is standardized to a defined active marker. Every lot ships against a specified COA. Every ingredient page on this site exists to give a formulator the technical detail they need before they pick up the phone.
1996–2000 — Closer to the source.
Through the 1990s, our European supply partners began opening their own U.S. sales offices. Rather than compete on the same ground, we went the other direction — to the source.
Between 1996 and 2000, GCI established a sourcing and sales footprint across the major botanical supply nations: Canada, India, Brazil, China, and Europe. The premise was simple — by knowing the growers, the producers, the manufacturers, and the shippers personally, we could control the quality and consistency of raw materials in a way a broker simply can’t.
That network is the reason a customer asking for a difficult-to-find ingredient today usually gets a yes. Not because we hold every SKU on the shelf, but because we know who does.
Today — Branded ingredients, clinical work, and a science-led roadmap.
GCI carries a broad range of commodity and specialty ingredients alongside a growing line of trademarked branded ingredients including HumicSure™, PrebioSure™, MycoSure™, RhodiolaSure™, SerraSure™, GarliSure™, Olivir™, GeOxy-132™, DHA3Sure™, PoliSure™, LipoSerine™, PEASure™, PQQSure™, and Diehl’s Own® CM.
Every branded ingredient is built around a specific active marker, a defined source, and a science story we can substantiate.
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PrebioSure™ is the foundation of what we call the plusbiotic category — a third intestinal-health category beyond probiotics and prebiotics, designed to help rebuild the intestinal mucosa.
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Diehl’s Own® CM honors Dr. Harry Diehl, the NIH chemist whose 1970s research first isolated cetyl myristoleate.
Each one has a story worth telling on its own page.
Our scientific advisor, Dr. Richard Kozlenko (DPM, MPH, Ph.D.), oversees the science behind our branded line and writes regularly at Dr. Koz’s Corner. Our NutriPharma Coalition is conducting clinical trials with research partners in California and Hungary on formulations that put nutraceutical ingredients side-by-side with pharmaceutical comparators. Several of those studies are currently being prepared for publication.
Why customers work with us.
- A family-run American business with three generations in the natural-products trade.
- More than 50 years of ingredient distribution under cGMP.
- Standardized branded ingredients with defined actives, single-origin sourcing where possible, and full COA on request.
- A direct sourcing network in the world’s botanical-source countries, built on relationships that span decades.
- In-house scientific guidance and formulation support — not just a price list.
Start a conversation.
If you’re formulating a product and need an ingredient — one of ours or one of the hundreds we source — get in touch. We’ll send a sample, send a spec sheet, and put you in touch with a formulator if it helps.