CNBC's Gabrielle Fonrouge digs into how supplement company Thorne became one of Gen Z's favorite wellness brands, even as the age group is wary of subscriptions.

Thorne, a supplement company founded over four decades ago, has emerged as a leading wellness brand for Gen Z and millennials. This shift reflects a broader generational change in the wellness industry, with younger consumers now spending significantly more on health products and demanding greater personalization and trust from brands.

Thorne has responded with lifestyle-focused marketing, partnerships with sports leagues, and an emphasis on product certifications and testing. The company, now privately owned by L Catterton, is exploring potential exit strategies such as an IPO or acquisition, as interest in longevity and wellness continues to grow.

How Thorne became one of Gen Z's favorite wellness brands

One of Gen Z's favorite brands is a 42-year-old supplement company. And this reflects a massive generational shift that's rocking the wellness industry at large. For decades, the primary consumer for vitamins and supplements were boomers. And now you have millennials and Gen Zs who are spending 1.5 times more than their parents did on wellness products. And this is leading to huge growth at Thorne. They're demanding more too. They're demanding a higher degree of personalization. They want brands they can trust. And frankly, trust has been a challenge at times in the supplement market. People want to sleep better. They want to have less anxiety. They want to work out better. It's all about this optimization. And now you have the Make America Healthy Again movement, which just started. That's kind of helping to buoy this moment. Thorne is really selling a lifestyle. You still have to make it cool though, right? Because it's creatine or B12 or magnesium. And you got to have really great marketing in order to cut through the noise. This is a really competitive industry. There's a lot of brands out there. And if you look at some of Thorne's marketing materials, you don't even see vitamins in there. It's just about performance and good looking people and the right kind of sexy marketing that's going to get Gen Z excited. So these products are not cheap. And you also tend to stack the products on top of each other, which is really great for Thorne's revenue. It's like, you need this vitamin on top of that mineral and on top of that supplement. But consumers like that because it feels personalized to them. The FDA doesn't regulate supplements for safety and efficacy. And there's a lot of junk on the market. And Gen Z and millennials know this. They're a lot sharper when it comes to shopping. And so that's a big part of the marketing as well. What independent certifications do they have? What kind of testing they have? And so that's a way for them to cut through the noise. And they're also partnering with really cool and exciting sports leagues. You've got the UFC, you've got the Miami Open. And these are all of those things that kind of move the needle and it's like become super cool to take vitamins. Partnering with an entire sports association or league kind of goes a step further than just an individual athlete who is obviously getting paid to support this brand. It's important to note that Thorne was a public company a few years ago. Private equity firm, Al Catterton, took them private. And so the question is, is Al Catterton, like any private equity firm, looking for an exit and potentially looking to get investors excited? I asked CEO Colin Watts about this. He said, look, a potential IPO could work if the markets and the valuation is right for us. But he's like a strategic acquisition could also make a lot of sense for us. There's also a lot of strategic companies that are out there that might see a brand like Thorne as a very powerful asset within their overall portfolio going to market. So any of those directions would be, I think, a reasonable assumption as places where you might see an exit for the business. The wellness industry overall, whether or not this is a trend, a flash in the pan, or something that has some staying power, we're not really sure. But there is a lot of attention right now on longevity, right? People are talking about biohacking. There's more research and technology now more than ever. People are talking about living well into your hundreds. And already we're living way longer than previous generations did. And supplements is just kind of part of that.

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