The History of Lifesource
The Seed Family first started out as maltsters in nearby Bradford malt roasting barley for beer production back in 1863. In the early 1980's the maltings were sold however the family remained in the industry selling malt to the whisky distillers in Scotland.
It was during this time that it was discovered there was a shortage of high quality brewers yeast for the production of whisky and so a production facility was set up in Ripon to take in liquid brewers yeast from local brewers such as Tetley’s in Leeds and Webster’s of Halifax. The liquid yeast would be pressed through membrane filters into a cake then bagged and chilled for transport to Scotland. During the summer the distillers would shut down for the 'silent season' and so a spray drying plant was installed whereby the surplus yeast was dried and sold for flavours in the food industry.
In the late 1980's with the help of Leeds University microbiology and biochemistry departments we looked to add value to the yeast by incorporating trace elements such as zinc and selenium and so the evolution towards the health industry had begun.
Having produced mineral enriched yeasts for over ten years it was in 1998 that we were asked if we could produce some tablets containing the yeast and with few companies offering contract tablet services for small runs we decided to set up a tabletting section. It was soon apparent that it was not just mineral yeasts that people required but vitamins and minerals and herbs as so another tablet press was installed to enable us to increase production and develop a wider range.
In 2005 we had requests for capsules as the option for straight filled herbs meant no fillers, so we set up a capsule department. We installed a semi automatic 2 piece capsule filler and soon realised we needed another. This growth in sales continued and a second site was set up in Ripon to handle all the powder formulations and larger double cone blenders were installed to be able to produce 500 kilo batches.
In 2012 with the continued growth in production we relocated to Melmerby to a 10,000 square foot site on two floors which allowed us to expand the blending, tableting and the encapsulation where we installed fully automatic machines capable of producing 90,000 capsule per hour.
In 2017, two additional warehouses were bought in order to accomodate the number of both incoming and outgoing pallets and allowing for storage and distribution for clients.
With the range of raw materials expanding to over 3000, with the addition of amino acids, probiotic, enzymes, nutraceuticals the market has also changed from not just the health conscious or fitness but a lifestyle industry. This has also expanded the dose methods from a single pill to ready to drink powders.
At the end 2024 we acquired a further site for the installation of new packing lines to be able to not only handle higher volumes of tablet and capsule packing, but offer higher volumes of powder packing into both tub containers, pre-printed pouches and also single dose stick sachets.
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