Company History

In 1973 a registered pharmacist named Steve Michaelis started a company called A.O. Supply Company to supply the needs of holistic practitioners, like Dr. Phil Binzel, MD of Washington Court House, OH, who were in search of controversial and hard to find nutritional supplements and support items like laetrile (amygdalin or vitamin B-17), hydrazine sulfate, DMSO, EDTA, etc. Steve had to compound some of these products; even punching capsules himself, with the help of his sons Chuck and Ken.

The company and Steve’s reputation grew rapidly. Soon, he and his sons were working full time to keep up with the orders. Unfortunately, the supplement companies Steve’s company handled often dropped important supplements from their line or changed to multi-level marketing schemes. Steve and his son Ken decided that the best solution was to design their own supplements. Suddenly, Steve’s company had branched out and the seed that became Rocky Fork Formulas was planted.

The company continued to grow and so did the product line. New products were added, usually at the requests of physicians who wanted supplements that they couldn’t find but wanted to use in their practices. Dr. Binzel was involved in the design of several of the products. Steve and Ken gained a reputation for being able to supply these supplements quickly and at a fair price. Steve’s untimely death in 1994 left his company in the skilled hands of Ken, who had been running the company as manager since 1980. Unfortunately, Ken was squeezed out of A.O. Supply Company in early 1996. Sadly, Steve’s company was defunct within 2 years of Ken’s departure.

Ken, however, did not sit idle. Within a month of his departure, he had the framework of two separate new companies built. The first company, Holistic Alternatives, Inc, continued to handle the controversial and hard to find items that built the original company. The second company, Rocky Fork Formulas, Inc., was set up to design and distribute the complementary but less controversial items.

Ken had designed many of the original company’s formulas and realized that improvements and upgrading of the products to keep up with current research was necessary. He set out to improve and expand the line emphasizing the enzyme, digestive and gland support lines. In late 1997 Ken asked his brother Chuck, a biochemist (BS, B.Ch., Michigan State University, ”89) with an analytical chemistry and food sterilization background, to come back into the family business after leaving a major infant formula manufacturer. Chuck took over the presidency of Rocky Fork Formulas in 1997 and began researching product improvements and marketing strategies to increase the company’s customer base. Consequently, sales grew over 700% from 1998 to 1999. Product improvements and new products continue to be introduced.

We invite you to examine then try our product line and see why so many of your colleagues are making us one of the fastest growing companies in complementary medicine supplies. We believe you will be pleased with the product quality, the clinical results and the price of our product. And so will your patients.

Please call for a free catalog or to request a sample.

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