About RNA

Our Mission

At RNA Corporation, our mission is to help create innovative products that lead to success for our brand partners. We believe all customers are entitled to the best quality products possible, and therefore commit ourselves to adhering to strict formulation guidelines, regulatory requirements, and continuous process improvement.

We also believe that innovation is the key to greatness and brand differentiation, which is why we continuously strive to create new formulas across multiple categories such as hair care, skin care, and OTC topical drugs.

Illustrated drawing of men and women using personal care products such as skincare haircare and oils.

Our History

RNA Corporation is a full service turnkey contract manufacturer helping brands create amazing and innovative personal care products. We handle all the behind-the-scenes work including concept ideation, testing, manufacturing, packaging, and fulfillment allowing our partners to focus on innovation, marketing, sales, and their customers. We make life easeir for businesses, and open new opportunities for growth and expansion.

We began in 1983 as an R&D laboratory helping small and growing brands access new and innovative formulations. In 1989, we expanded to including contract manufacturing services for our partners.

Over the years, we grew to meet demand and introduced new formulation categories such as general market hair care, skincare, and hot fills. In 2012, we began offering FDA approved OTC formulations for topical products. Since our beginnings, we've gone from a small lab to to our current 300,000 square foot office and warehouse located in Blue Island, Illinois. We offer full turnkey or split turnkey manufacturing services to help solidify supply chain for our partners. We continue to improve through automation and technology to best provide for our brands.

Our expertise is personal care products and cosmetics, including body care, haircare, skincare, multicultural and textured hair products, OTC topical drugs, and more. We've worked with both large, international brands and small, growing businesses.

We provide our full commitment to our partners regardless of size.

Read about our full story here

Team Together

Our Services

As a full turnkey contract manufacturer, we handle the entire production process for our partners starting from formulation all the way through packaging and fulfillment. Along the way, we'll handle the quality control testing and more to ensure our products are of the highest quality.

We are committed to providing the best quality products to our customers by adhering to strict formulation guidelines, regulatory requirements, and continuous process improvement. Our fully-staffed R&D is constantly innovating new products and solutions across personal care categories. We even offer custom built tools for clients to access critical information about their products at a moment's notice.

Our success is directly tied to our brand partner's success, so we strive to meet deadlines and can boast a 99% delivery rate as tracked by our partners.

Formulation

Our library contains over 3,000 base formulas, and we create more than 250 each year. Our expertly staffed R&D lab ensures compliance to Prop 65 and EU standards, and can optimize your product for the best quality possible.

Testing

Our Blue Island facility contains Analytical, Microbiological, and Quality Control testing labs. We handle all aspects of testing to ensure a consistent and high-quality product for our partners. We ensure batches are within COA specifications, and test on-line for fill weight, closure torque, bill of material conformity, and many other quality metrics.

Regulatory

Our compliance and regulatory experts are up-to-date on changing laws and regulations around the world, and update our resources accordingly. We'll handle FDA testing and other outside protocols, such as HRIPT and more. We handle the legwork to ensure our products don't run into any legal roadblocks.

Manufacturing

Our 300,000 square foot facility has more than 25 filling lines capable of producing up to 500,000 units per day of mixed products. Our top-of-the-line equipment includes batching kettles set up to make multi-batch formulas, primary machine to fill bottles, jars, tubes, etc., and secondary machinery for all packaging needs.

Packaging

We source only the best quality materials for our products to guarantee they ship without damage or defects. We believe packaging is a reflection of what's inside and can help attract customers. We're committed to quality throughout the entire manufacturing process, packaging included.

Logistics

As a full service turnkey contract manufacturer, we provide third-party logistics solutions so our customers can focus on what they do best. Our Blue Island facility can easily receive, store, and ship our partner's raw and finished products to help lower warehousing and inventory management costs, as well as streamline the entire process.

Our Management Team

Muhammad Akhtar, CEO RNA

Muhammad Akhtar

Founder, and Chief Executive Officer

Muhammad founded RNA Corporation in 1983 as a haircare formulation laboratory with the goal of helping brands launch innovative products. As the company has expanded to include full turnkey contract manufacturing services, he has maintained his position as CEO and continues to work closely with RNA's partners to help best discover success based on his decades of experience in the industry. As the leader for the company, he sets the standard for our excellence in quality and customer care.

Nadia Akhtar, COO RNA

Nadia Akhtar

Chief Operating Officer

Nadia has been with RNA for almost two decades and oversees operations as well as customer relationships, works closely with the planning team to onboard new brand partners and get their products created. In addition, she works with the product development team to drive new projects forward and has been behind several hundreds new product launches. She has been integral in the success of many new brands and has helped realize the tremendous growth our company has experienced.

Tariq Hasan, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer RNA

Tariq Hasan

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Tariq has been with RNA for over a decade and has helped create the technology infrastructure that is used across all departments and nearly all functions of the organization. This platform helps RNA lower costs, increase efficiency, and reduce errors. He currently oversees the sales and marketing department and has the singular goal of helping brands win. His mission is to align RNA's core strengths with customer needs to enable rapid time to market with next generation products.

Noman Mohammed, CFO RNA

Noman Muhammad

Chief Financial Officer

Noman has been with RNA for nearly half a decade, and boasts nearly 20 years of finance and accounting experience both in the United States and overseas. Noman has helped RNA continue to grow and expand to provide the best full turnkey contract manufacturing services possible for our partners. Noman oversees finance, accounting, legal matters, as well as the human resources department.

Reid Karajeh, Director of Quality RNA

Reid Karajeh

Director of Quality

Reid has over three decades of experience in quality management, and has been instrumental is advancing RNA's quality level and service offerings. Since joining, he's overseen the testing of raw and finished products, implementing continuous improvement programs, and ensures the company follows GMP protocols, all to support manufacturing products that meet and exceed client and customer expectations.

Archish Desai

Director of R&D

Archish bring nearly three decades of R&D experience, and has overseen the company's growth into new formulations, products, and manufacturing capabilities in that time. He has helped create incredible leaps in innovation for RNA and expansions into new categories. Archish continues to lead RNA's R&D lab into the future.

Rich Mulhall, Director of Microbiology RNA

Richard Mulhall

Director of Microbiology

Richard brings over three decades of microbiological testing experience and was one of the original influencers that helped create the USP testing standards that is in use today. Richard ensures every formula and batch is free of germs and biological organisms, and his team utilizes the latest instruments for quicker turnaround times, so our customers get their finished products faster than before.

Rich Mulhall, Director of Microbiology RNA

Waheed Arain

Director of Compounding

Waheed brings over two decades of compounding experience and manages an entire team of veteran chemical processors and batching experts. His team ensures each one of the thousands of batches we produce per year is made with quality and conforms to the formula specifications. He oversees both cosmetic and OTC formula batching.

Abrar Syed, Director of Supply Chain RNA

Abrar Syed

Director of Supply Chain

Abrar has more than a decade of proven expertise in supply chain management and in cutting edge technologies and processes. His valuable contributions in demand planning, logistics, warehousing, sourcing, inventory management, and more helps ease those burdens off our partners. Abrar works across all departments to ensure a smooth supply chain and reduce stock outs due to chemical and packaging variable lead times.

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Bill Nevers

Director of Engineering

Bill helps increase production efficiencies, implement standards, and improve training procedures for RNA. He brings extensive experience in maintenance management, first working for steel forges and thermal processing companies, but has spent the past decade in high-speed bottle and jar filling, packaging, and manufacturing.