Orthomol

Orthomol is a German family-owned company from Langenfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia that develops, produces and sells micronutrient supplements. It was founded in 1991 by Dr. Kristian Glagau and Dr. Hans Dietl [3], and has been run since 2009 by Glagau's son, Nils Glagau. The company works in what is called orthomolecular nutritional medicine: combinations of vitamins, minerals and trace elements dosed for specific uses, from the immune system to joints and energy levels. Wikipedia describes it as the market leader in Germany in this field, while also noting that the effect of such supplements is a controversial subject [8].

Most of Orthomol's range is sold as food supplements rather than cosmetics, but the company also runs a beauty line aimed at skin, hair and nails, built mainly on capsules and drinks taken "from within" plus one hair tonic applied to the scalp. Its products are known in pharmacies in Germany and Austria for their blue packaging, and the company says they are now available in more than 30 countries.

According to the company, the idea for Orthomol came out of an encounter at Munich Airport. Kristian Glagau, who had earlier worked in marketing at Fresenius, wanted to bring orthomolecular products to Germany. Wikipedia traces the inspiration back to the Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, who began using combined vitamin, mineral and trace-element formulas for disease prevention in the United States in 1968.

Glagau and Hans Dietl set up Orthomol pharmazeutische Vertriebs GmbH in August 1991 [4]. The start was modest. The company says it began with two employees in a private house in Langenfeld, and later moved into 140 square metres of office space on the town's Poststraße. Kristian Glagau later summed up the early days in a 2009 interview, quoted by the company: "We literally began in our garage, with the Glagau family as our staff."

The first four products were Orthomol Immun, Orthomol Vital f, Orthomol Vital m and Orthomol Cor. Specially built machinery was used to pack them. Immun, a micronutrient combination for the immune system, went on to become the company's best-known product.

Growth in the first decade was steady. Orthomol opened a second site in Langenfeld, and by 2001 it had taken on its 100th employee. Over the following years the product range was offered in several forms, including tablets and capsules, granules and ready-to-drink vials, and the company opened its first childcare facility for staff, known as the "Orthomolinis".

The founder's death in 2009 marked a turning point. The company describes Kristian Glagau's death as unexpected, and says his son Nils Glagau then took over as owner and managing director, making Orthomol a second-generation family business [2]. Wikipedia adds that Michael Schmidt, who had already been a managing director before the founder's death, stayed on, and that the product range was widened while most of the business strategy stayed the same.

The decade that followed brought expansion beyond Germany. Orthomol opened its first office abroad, in Vienna, and sent a large blue truck on a "Better Health" tour through Germany to teach visitors about nutrition and micronutrients. In 2016 more than 400 employees marked the company's 25th anniversary, and the same year a fundraising campaign collected more than 100,000 euros for Die Arche, a Christian charity that supports children and young people. Also from 2016, Orthomol became the supplier of dietary supplements to the German Ice Hockey Federation and its national teams.

Much of the recent history has been about building capacity at home. In 2013 the company bought a recreational area near its Langenfeld headquarters, and in 2019 it began putting up a 7,000-square-metre production building on that site. At the end of 2022 it started extending that building with eight more production lines across more than 3,000 square metres. In February 2024 construction began on a logistics centre in Leverkusen, intended for the distribution and shipping of Orthomol products.

Wikipedia puts the company's revenue at nearly 130 million euros in 2020 and 153.57 million euros in the 2022 financial year. Orthomol celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2021. In April 2026 it launched Orthomol Essentials, a line of single-nutrient capsules sold only through its own online shop.

Orthomol is privately held and not listed on any stock exchange. Its parent is Orthomol Holding GmbH, a family-owned holding company that forms a group with German and international subsidiaries.

Accounts of who owns the group differ. The company's own fact page names Nils Glagau as the owner and describes the business as family-owned [3]. Wikipedia instead says ownership is split between two families, those of Nils Glagau and Gesche Hugger, the founder's two children [8].

The management team is described differently too. The company's current legal notice lists four managing directors: Nils Glagau, Vera Knauer, Dr. Michael Schmidt and Dr. Jörn Weißenfeld [5]. Wikipedia names only Nils Glagau, responsible for marketing and sales, and Michael Schmidt, responsible for purchasing, production, logistics and technology.

Nils Glagau also became known outside the company. From 2019 to 2025 he appeared as an investor on ten seasons of the German TV start-up show Die Höhle der Löwen on the channel VOX. He invests in young companies through a separate firm, Rock B(r)and GmbH.

Staff numbers have risen over time, and the figures vary by date. Wikipedia gives 495 employees in 2022, the company's homepage mentions more than 500, and its fact page states around 600 as of June 2026, spread across three sites.

Orthomol presents itself as a pioneer of orthomolecular nutritional medicine in Germany. The company says it develops balanced, dosed micronutrient combinations for particular areas of use, and it frames health as "a family matter", a phrase it applies both to its staff and to the people who use its products. On its homepage it goes further, calling itself the number one dietary supplement manufacturer.

The brand's identity is closely tied to the pharmacy counter. The company describes its range as "the blue wall" in the pharmacy, a reference to the uniform blue packs displayed together on shelves. It places weight on advice from pharmacists and doctors, and says its in-house medical team continually reviews international studies on micronutrients. Each pack carries an individual code that, according to Orthomol, lets buyers check that the product is genuine.

Distribution follows the same pattern. The company says it sells through more than 17,000 pharmacies in Germany and Austria and through its own online shop, and it runs country websites for Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Japan. Internally, it describes a culture of flat hierarchies built on team spirit, customer focus and flexibility, supported by staff benefits such as its own fitness studios. Wikipedia notes that the group is often cited as an example of employer branding.

The core catalogue covers a wide range of health areas, including eyes, bones and joints, gut health, energy and nerves, the heart, the immune system, pregnancy, menopause and children. Well-known lines include Orthomol Immun, Orthomol Vital, Orthomol chondroplus for cartilage and bones, and the gut-focused Orthomol Pro 6.

For beauty, Orthomol groups its products under the heading of vitamins and supplements for skin, hair and nails. Orthomol Beauty, which the company describes as a supplement for supporting beauty from within, combines collagen and hyaluronic acid with biotin, zinc and selenium and with what the company calls its Phytamin-Q10 complex, a formula of olive extract, vitamins and coenzyme Q10. A version called Orthomol Beauty for Men sits alongside it, as do single-nutrient products such as coenzyme Q10, selenium, zinc, MSM, curcuma, resveratrol and astaxanthin.

Two hair products show how the company handles health wording. Orthomol Hair Intense is a supplement, and its description uses the standard EU-approved claim that biotin, selenium and zinc contribute to the maintenance of normal hair, while copper supports hair pigmentation. Orthomol Hair Solution is different. The brand's beauty page describes it as a cosmetic hair tonic, applied to the scalp once a day and dermatologically tested, for people dealing with hair loss [6]. The company says its ingredients support the natural hair cycle and demonstrably contribute to hair growth, though no study is named on the page.

The company's own sources do not agree on what Hair Solution is. While the beauty page calls it a cosmetic, the fact page describes it as a micronutrient combination for diffuse hair loss containing biotin, zinc, copper and panthenol, and states that Orthomol makes only dietary supplements [3].

Development and production take place in Langenfeld. Orthomol's only stated certification is ISO 22000, an international food-safety standard, audited each year by TÜV Rheinland. The company says it was the first in its segment to be certified to that standard [3].

Most of Orthomol's awards come from the German pharmacy and business world. The company reports that in 2025 it won the "Favoriten-Studie 2025" (Die erfolgreiche Apotheke, Deutsches Apothekenportal and IQVIA) in the category of best dietary supplement manufacturer for the ninth year in a row [3]. It also lists the Deutscher Kunden Award 2025/26.

Between 2001 and 2011 the company received a Company Award from an organisation abbreviated BDU. The company's German history page spells this out as the Bundesverband Deutscher Unternehmer, while its English page calls it the Federal Association of German Management Consultants and describes the award as the "Nobel Prize" for German businesses. In the same period, founder Kristian Glagau received an innovation award from the German Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW).

Orthomol's products have drawn repeated criticism in the German press, as summarised by Wikipedia. In 2002 Der Spiegel criticised the company for promoting products without medical evidence in connection with cancer treatment [8]. In a 2014 Spiegel Online article, the physician Peter Sawicki said that Orthomol Immun has no proven effect on preventing disease. In 2016 the Deutsche Apothekerzeitung reported that Öko-Test had rated over-the-counter immune products, including Orthomol Immun Pro, as "insufficient" [8].

These criticisms sit within a wider debate. Wikipedia notes that the effect of orthomolecular micronutrient supplements in general is disputed.

Orthomol is active and independent. The company, still owned by the Glagau family, has continued to invest in production and logistics, launched its online-only Essentials range in April 2026 and updated its company fact page in August 2026. Its news section reported that the 13th Orthomol charity football tournament took place in Langenfeld on 12 September 2026 [1]. The company has also presented its products abroad, including at the event "BE FES. – Mitsukoshi Wellness Beauty" at the Japanese department store Mitsukoshi.