NBTY Acquires HealthCentral Assets, Knox Supplement LineNBTY Acquires HealthCentral Assets, Knox Supplement Line

NBTY Acquires HealthCentral Assets, Knox Supplement Line

BOHEMIA, N.Y.--NBTY Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTY)made two acquisitions in December, purchasing certain assets ofHealthCentral.com as well as the Knox nutritional supplement business from KraftFoods.

The HealthCentral.com deal was for $2.8 million in cash and includes thecustomer list of the company's mail order operation, L&H Vitamins, and thecustomer list and URLs of Vitamins.com and WebRx.com. HealthCentral.com was anonline retailer, which filed bankruptcy Oct. 9. According to NBTY, theseoperations had collective sales of approximately $15 million over the past 12months and a combined customer list of approximately 1.8 million names.

The $4 million Knox acquisition includes the Knox NutraJoint, Knox NutraJointwith Glucosamine and Knox for Nails supplements, which have yearly revenues of$15 million. As part of the deal, NBTY will license the Knox trademark at nocost to Kraft for its Knox gelatine business, which was not part of the sale.The Knox nutritional supplement products were not a core business withinKrafts portfolio, but it is a better fit with NBTY since they already have asignificant supplements business, remarked Betsy Holden, president and chiefexecutive officer (CEO) of Kraft Foods North American and co-CEO of Kraft Foods.

We are excited by the Knox acquisition, which will broaden our productbase and give us entry into new accounts, reported Scott Rudolph, NBTYchairman and CEO. He added that the company would continue to focus its energieson expanding the Natures Bounty wholesale division.