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HERE’S TO HEALTH

InVite brings some splash to the vitamin shop format

By Molly Knight

Beneath a sign that reads “Heart Health,” Hiroko Takashima paces back and forth in her white lab coat, nodding intently and murmuring soothing words into the phone. A customer has called to complain of high blood pressure, the most common ailment afflicting the people who ring Takashima at work. She mutters something about fish oils and antioxidants, and suggests the caller come in for a full consultation. “We can help you,” she says. “There are so many alternatives.”

Takashima is neither a doctor nor a psychologist, but for many people she functions in these roles. As a nutritionist at the InVite Health boutique near New York City’s Grand Central Station, Takashima offers advice to the ill, the wounded or the simply stressed. For free.

“A lot of people don’t feel comfortable telling their doctors they’re taking supplements,” she said over ginseng gummy bears and shots of green tea from the store’s “anTEAoxidant” bar. “So sometimes a patient’s health will begin to improve, and the doctor attributes it solely to the medication he prescribed. Some doctors are really with it, though, and they support their patients in taking natural supplements.”

It was one of these “really with it” doctors who inspired the InVite retail concept. After some 20 years in the high-end jewelry business, Steven Kornblatt, a New York City entrepreneur, was seeking a new venture. In the early 1990s Kornblatt’s father suffered a heart attack and received a grim prognosis. Encouraged by a son-in-law (whom Steven Kornblatt describes as a progressively minded physician), the elder Kornblatt began taking natural supplements that helped restore his health. This inspired Steven Kornblatt to launch a natural health remedy venture. In 2001 he joined Jerry Hickey, founder of nutraceutical company Hickey Chemists, to form InVite Health.

Kornblatt’s experience selling gems was not wasted on the new venture, however. After all, it takes more than nutritional expertise to create and sustain a successful chain. “Steven had a great background in high-end jewelry retail,” said Rob Martin, vice president of communications at InVite and also a co-founder. “And he brought that expertise to our health business.”

The idea was to create nutritional boutiques offering top-quality supplements and staffed with licensed nutritionists dispensing advice, Martin says. “All of our nutritionists are degreed professionals,” he said. “People come to us because they want good information from pros. Our competitors don’t have that — they have clerks.”

With this new concept firmly in mind, Kornblatt, Hickey, Martin and a fourth co-founder, Gabe Borgese, set out to bring natural remedies to the New York metropolitan area. “You simply cannot have enough stores in Manhattan,” Martin said. “The population is so dense that three city blocks is like a whole neighborhood.”

InVite stores typically measure between 800 and 1,400 square feet. The Grand Central store, with its full antioxidant bar of teas for cardiovascular health, energy and stress release is the biggest, measuring 1,400.

“It’s tough to get good spots,” said Martin. “We found that location, and even though it was bigger than we needed, we decided to go for it and introduce the new [antioxidant bar] concept. It’s like the old saying goes, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’”

In the Grand Central store, Takashima and sales manager Nesia Baksh work the floor while two other staff members manage the antioxidant bar, preparing smoothies with such names as “Anti-aging,” “Beauty,” “Detox” and “Digestion.” When the staff are asked how InVite is able to do good business with a GNC vitamin store operating just three doors away, one of the drink specialists pipes up, “There’s no competition!”

To be sure, the two stores certainly look different enough. InVite’s silver stools rest on elegant wood floors. Supplements are attractively organized and neatly presented by ailment against three walls beneath overhead signs that bear “Brain Health,” “Stress Management,” “Liver and Health Detox,” “Digestive Health” and similar labels. A flat-screen TV greets visitors with nutrition-oriented programming; T-shirts for sale bear the W.H. Auden quote, “Healing is not a science but an intuitive art of wooing nature.”

At the back of the store, a customer checks out an exfoliating astringent containing a blend of Japanese green tea, grape seed extract and seaweed; another customer ogles gum spray with aloe vera gel. The former item is part of InVite’s “cosmeceutical” line, the latter belongs to the periodontal products. “We offer the consumer what none of our competitors do,” said Baksh. “And it makes a real difference.”

Besides its seven New York City locations, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based InVite operates two stores on Long Island, N.Y., and late last year opened stores in New Jersey, at the Westfield-owned Garden State Plaza Mall, Paramus; and at General Growth Properties’ Woodbridge Center Mall, in Woodbridge.

“Our main focus is the tristate area,” said Martin. “We’ve got 11 stores right now, but we’re really trying to roll things out so we can at least double that number in the next few years. Our mall stores really represent a new generation. That’s really the key to our expansion.”

Another key is the growing demand for professional health consultation among consumers, says Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a New York City-based retail consulting firm. “This industry is getting bigger and bigger every year,” said Passikoff. “As the population gets older, people are looking for healthier stuff, and they want quick fixes. If someone can take a couple of pills every day to manage his or her cholesterol, then they’ll absolutely do it.”

Passikoff says changes in the ways people obtain health information are driving natural health product franchises such as InVite. “It used to be that folks would listen to what their grandmothers had to say, but now people are relying more on evidence-based expertise,” said Passikoff. “InVite positions themselves that way — they’re addressing the market with a wonderful, balanced presentation. They offer a higher order of diagnostics, and, as a result, people know they’re getting a higher order of results.”

In addition to having nutritionists greet visitors as they walk into stores, InVite reaches consumers in another creative way: Martin and Hickey co-host an hour-long radio show weekdays on WWRL 1600 AM in the New York metro area. Martin credits the power of the airwaves as a major component of InVite’s success. “The radio gives us tremendous exposure,” said Martin. “It gives us the opportunity to have a one-on-one relationship with our listeners, who are our customers. This breeds a real loyalty. They listen to us every day, and they come and shop.”

Martin says the show also helps the company determine where to open new stores. “We like to go where we have listeners,” Martin said. “We’re working very hard to get a store up in Brooklyn, because we have a huge audience there. Eventually, we’d love to go national, but we’re taking things step-by-step. We’re building a very solid foundation here, and we’re financing ourselves.”

Part of building a solid foundation is addressing the needs of customers across a variety of socioeconomic brackets, Martin says. “We draw from all economic strata,” he said. “Our store on 72nd Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan has one of the richest zip codes in the country, but we’ve also got customers coming in from Harlem on the train. We service all incomes, all religions and all races. Regular folks are the backbone of our business.”

But there is one key group that has not caught on. “We don’t get a lot of young people,” Martin said. “Most 20-somethings are too busy worrying about their career and their girlfriends and boyfriends to really put a lot of time and energy into their health. They only care about bodybuilding or losing weight. And they’re so healthy they don’t have to worry about anything but an occasional cold. It isn’t until people start having children that health really becomes a priority. So our customer is generally 35 and older.”

But for all that, Takashima says young people can benefit greatly from InVite’s products. She quizzed one visitor on her vegetable intake. When the young woman acknowledged that her 24-year-old body is lucky to get the recommended daily servings of vegetables on any given week, Takashima scurried across the store and returned with a Big Mac-size red-and-yellow box labeled “InVite Performance.” The package contained 30 packets of four capsules each to supply the suggested daily dose for every vitamin imaginable. At $59.96, the price may be a bit daunting to “regular folks” like this young lady, but the cost of malnourishment is greater still, Takashima could argue. In any case, though Takashima says supplements should neither replace a balanced diet nor be expected to cure serious medical conditions, she does assert that the pills work wonders.

Her word is good, underscored by the white lab coat. The visitor forks over the money, feeling healthier already.