GOLO CEO Chris Lundin cuts the ribbon on the company’s new Heald Street warehouse as President Jennifer Brooks and Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki look on Thursday, Nov. 9. | PHOTO COURTESY OF GOLO/SAQUAN STIMPSON
WILMINGTON – Just weeks after officially opening a new corporate headquarters near Newark, GOLO, a fast-growing national wellness and weight loss company, cut the ribbon Thursday on a new warehouse off U.S. Route 13 that will help drive its continued growth.
Founded in 2009 by CEO Chris Lundin and President Jennifer Brooks, GOLO aimed to upend the traditional “crash” diets that taught users to avoid certain foods by stressing a holistic approach to dieting, exercise and supplements.
The GOLO program focuses on supporting healthy insulin levels, a key hormone that affects the body’s metabolism. The plan is designed to help reduce fat storage while minimizing muscle loss. The plan promotes balanced healthy eating and encourages consistent exercise along with a proprietary supplement containing minerals and plant extracts that aim to help reverse insulin resistance.
While the company slowly grew over its first decade, it saw explosive growth during the COVID pandemic, Brooks said. Today, GOLO has eclipsed 4 million customers globally and employs about 100 people.
The company has a distribution warehouse in Las Vegas that largely serves its West Coast consumers, but it needed a closer distribution point on the East Coast. That led GOLO to lease an 80,000-square-foot warehouse at 915 S. Heald St. in Wilmington’s Southbridge community that will serve as its East Coast distribution center for supplements but also a new frozen food line.
The newly renovated facility will distribute GOLO’s weight loss products, exercise equipment, and recently launched line of frozen meals and feature one of the largest dry-ice production lines in the mid-Atlantic region. GOLO anticipates the new facility will employ 50 local workers.
“That’s going to be a big growth area for us,” Brooks previously told Delaware Business Times of the minimally processed, balanced meals. “We also just came out with a new supplement. So, we’re continuing to come out with products that all fit into that healthy lifestyle philosophy.”
In recognition of the new facility opening, GOLO will donate 100,000 nutritious meals to local food banks, food pantries, and community-based organizations to help combat food insecurity in Delaware over the coming year. The unique food donation program, which was rolled out this fall, is designed to provide access to nutritionally balanced meals from the company’s GOLO Foods line of products to those in need.
Organizations receiving food donations from GOLO as part of the program include the Food Bank of Delaware, Sunday Breakfast Mission, Delaware Regional Dream Center, Warriors Helping Warriors, and the Police Athletic League of Wilmington. Additional community partners covering New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties will be added with this initiative.