Sorry guys! We’re closing our doors on March 31st (give or take) and not for the reason you might think. We survived the Google Medic Update, and we survived the pandemic. Financially, we actually had a good year last year. So, why are we closing?

Quite simply, we are exhausted. Kristen and I have been working 7 days a week, 12-14 hours a day for the last 17 years. We are burned out. And although we survived the pandemic, it dramatically increased our workload—what with major delivery problems and difficulty getting ingredients for our formulas. When we started Baseline 17 years ago, we could get an emergency run of a product in as little as three weeks, so we almost never had a backorder. Today, minimum delivery times for a product run are pushing six months, making it almost impossible to manage inventory--as those of you waiting over 3 months for the pHi-Zymes 450’s to come back have experienced.

The other problem we have is my new book. It’s not simply an update of Lessons from the Miracle Doctors; it’s an entirely new book. It’s three times as long as Miracle Doctors (think Gone with the Wind in length), has over a dozen embedded videos, and contains1,900 clickable references. We’re just waiting until we close our doors before I release it.

And why do we need to wait?

Because we estimate, based on previous book publications, its release will increase demand for Baseline Nutritionals’ products by at least 400%. And considering that we’re burned out at current volumes, the idea of having to gear up for a fourfold expansion is simply unimaginable.

Also, Kristen was never supposed to be involved with Baseline Nutritionals—certainly not running it. She was retiring to work on her art when Baseline started in 2003. For those of you who don’t know, Kristen is a superb artist. She came on board because the three partners that I started Baseline Nutritionals with, and who were supposed to run it, were not capable of doing the job. So, Kristen stepped in to fill the gap…for the next 17 years. Anyway, this is now her time. I need to fulfill the promise I made to her 17 years ago.

Now, I know a question many of you are already asking yourselves is: “Will we still be able to get Baseline’s products somewhere else?” And for the last nine months, we have been looking for someone to take over the Baseline product line. We even had two multimillion dollar offers to buy Baseline Nutritionals but turned both of them down. It wasn’t the money; we would actually have taken less than they offered. It was the fact that neither company could guarantee that they would continue to produce the product line without compromising product quality. The first offer was a company that thought they were taking over a profitable online vitamin store. They were assuming they could buy generic vitamins, put our label on them, and sell them at a good profit. They had no idea what they were doing and could not possibly have maintained the quality of the formulas. The second offer came from a company that had the requisite experience but kept asking during the negotiations why we had to use organic and USP grade ingredients. Wouldn’t profit margins be much higher if we used conventional grade, and what difference would it make? They simply were not the right stewards for the Baseline Nutritionals’ product line.

Look, we haven’t given up. There was one major herbal supplement company we were talking to that would have been perfect. Unfortunately, they were already negotiating the acquisition of another company and ultimately decided that they could only handle one acquisition at a time. I’m going to keep looking, but the bottom line is that I will not let some company use our name to sell you an inferior product. Better that we simply go away rather than you be deceived.

Yes, I understand that’s all well and good, but your follow up question would be: “Well Jon, if Baseline Nutritionals is gone and your products are no longer available, what companies/products do you recommend to replace your formulas?” And that’s the problem, isn’t it? As is obvious, Baseline Nutritionals never produced generic products like vitamin C or D or a multivitamin pill even if I recommended that you use them. My feeling has always been that if you can get a quality version of the formulas I recommend somewhere else, why would we bother to make it ourselves. I only created formulas for Baseline when I thought there was no other place you could get that formula, or something that worked as well. And now that we are closing our doors, it’s not like those formulas are magically appearing in other companies’ product lines.

So…

Over the next three months, we will be selling off the inventory we have. If you have some favorite formulas, you might want to grab them quickly and stock up. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. By the way, the pHi-Zymes 450’s that we ordered six months ago should be arriving at the warehouse this month (even as we’re ironically announcing we’re closing) and be available for the close out. I would also highly recommend stocking up on Super ViraGon to get you through the next few months of the pandemic—especially if you’re not planning to get vaccinated. You’ll want a backup plan.

Many of you have been with us since we opened our doors 17 years ago. And some of you have even been withs us as long as 25 years, following me around as I formulated for other companies before opening Baseline Nutritionals. And some of you have let us know in no uncertain terms that you depend on our formulas to maintain your quality of life…and even life itself in some cases. Closing our doors was not an easy decision. Saying goodbye to you is very difficult. You guys are more like friends and family than customers. It will be tough, but we are simply flat out exhausted.

Final thoughts:

• We will keep you informed if anything changes.
• Fingers crossed that we finally find the right company to take over the Baseline line of products so that you can still get all the formulas that you depend on…at the quality you have come to expect.
• If there’s a product you really want, I suggest you not wait too long. While some products will still be in inventory come March, others may run out in the next few days.

And finally, let me thank all of you who have taken this journey of health with us—some for the last 25 years and many for just the last few months or even weeks. It has been the joy of our lives to work with all of you. We wish you all good health and long life going forward.

Sincerely,

Jon Barron