Just because vitamins may be good for a child it’s not always the easiest thing to convince them to partake. The taste, after all, can often be far from pleasant.
But one County Armagh mum has found the solution and is due to launch a new and exciting product at the start of next year.
Victoria Cartmill has established Invisi Wellness, which is based in Glenanne, and has already won a prestigious business award months before the first product is even due to hit the shelves.
InvisiVits is an unflavoured multivitamin which is designed especially for children aged four and over.
And for Victoria, a mum-of-two, she recognised the need and drew on her experiences – both academic and personal – to make it happen.
She told Armagh I: “I recognised that traditional supplement formats, such as gummies, chewable tablets and liquids, can present barriers for some children due to taste, texture, sensory preferences or difficulties with particular formats.
“This inspired me to explore a more inclusive and practical approach to children’s nutrition, one that works around children’s individual preferences and familiar routines, rather than expecting every child to adapt to the same supplement format.
“Our first product, InvisiVits, is an unflavoured multivitamin and mineral powder currently being developed for children aged four and over, designed to be mixed into familiar foods and drinks. It is intended to complement a balanced diet by providing vitamins and minerals that support nutritional needs.
“Our philosophy is acceptance-first nutrition, fitting nutrition around the child, rather than asking the child to fit around the supplement.”
Victoria has a food science background; she holds a First-Class Honours BSc in Food Quality, Safety and Nutrition with Professional Studies, and an MSc in Business in Agri-Food and Rural Enterprise, specialising in Innovation Management, from Queen’s University Belfast, which she completed with Distinction. She has over 10 years of experience in FMCG food innovation and commercial development too.
With that experience, she said: “Invisi Wellness brings together my academic background in food science, nutrition and innovation with my perspective as a parent and my passion for making children’s nutrition more inclusive and accessible.
“I’m always looking out for things and I suppose, as a parent, and having that knowledge of food, I couldn’t see something suitable available on the market. I just saw a gap that wasn’t available for certain children. It’s a passion very much driven by both personal and academic knowledge.”
InvisiVits delivers on the key health benefits one might expect. And while it’s often advised that nutrition should come from food first, that is not always possible for every child for different reasons.
“Some children have sensory sensitivities or neurodivergence or things like that,” explained Victoria. “This bridges the gap and gives parents peace of mind, that their child is getting the vitamins that they need and minerals that they may be lacking.”
Invisi Wellness is currently up and running and InvisiVits is at the ‘pre-launch’ stage.
“We’ve literally just signed off on the product and we’re launching in January,” added Victoria. “The business has been set up for the last few months, but as you can imagine, with this being quite a different approach, it’s taken a lot of reformulation, a lot of work with chemists.
“I’ve done a lot of taste panels and it’s been given to children, end users, and parents to try with their children. I had got a lot of feedback, because at the end of the day, I only saw this product working if it actually was undetected when it’s added to familiar foods and drinks.
“I also have given it out to health professionals, occupational therapists and paediatricians. It’s more just been to get initial feedback.”
The thumbs-up response has set the wheels firmly in motion for January’s planned launch.
“It’s been very positive and we’ve had people say that they couldn’t detect a taste or an aroma when they’ve used the product,” added Victoria. “Very early on there had been some comments made on things that we then were able to perfect and take on board.
“It’s been very extremely positive, so much so that I’ve been happy, as of this week really, to sign off on the final formula.
“It’s been really good just to see that people have found when they’ve tried it with their children, they’ve been able to take it. And it’s very much even involving the children too, that they can know as well that it’s being added to their food, but also that there’s still the level of trust with them that it hasn’t made any difference to their favourite foods.
“We’re currently working towards a planned product launch in January 2027, initially through direct-to-consumer sales via our website.”
Invisi Wellness has already enjoyed success ahead of launch, after winning the ‘Inclusive Entrepreneurship’ award at the annual ‘Go Succeed: The Ultimate Pitch’ competition.
The local heat covered the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and was held in Portadown Town Hall, with the judges extremely impressed and Victoria delighted by their reception to her plans and product.
“Winning the Inclusive Entrepreneurship award has been a wonderful encouragement and recognition of the vision behind Invisi Wellness at this early stage,” she said.
“Because it’s an award recognising the inclusive side of things, it’s a very proud moment for the business, especially ahead of launch. There’s been a huge amount of time, research and commitment put into it so far. The big thing for us is the acceptance first approach, so having that recognised by the judges is just incredibly encouraging.”
InvisiVits will be the first product launched but, as far as Victoria is concerned, it will by no means be the last, with the potential to explore and develop other options going forward.
“Hopefully this is just the start to prove the model of what we’re trying to do,” she added. “This is geared to children aged four and over for this first product, which is a multivitamin, but obviously there’s scope then that you could move across different age target groups and different vitamin options.
“It’s quite exciting in the sense of it doesn’t necessarily have to stay within food supplements. We can branch off into different areas hopefully in the future as well.”
To find out more about Invisi Wellness and keep up-to-date ahead of the product launch, click on the link here >>>
