Nutrition 21, a developer and marketer of dietary supplement ingredients, has sold its direct response and retail businesses to Nature’s Products, a consumer health goods maker. The sale price was approximately $3.2 million plus the assumption of designated liabilities, according to Nutrition 21’s December 30 statement on the sale.
Nutrition 21 has retained its ingredients business, which it said in a statement is profitable, as well as its patent portfolio. The company disclosed it has applied about $2.7 million of the sale to repaying notes it issued in August 2006.
Michael Zaher, president and CEO of Nutrition 21, said in the statement that the company “entered into this transaction to focus our limited financial resources on our profitable ingredients business.”
John Kelly, president of sales and marketing at Nature’s Products, said in a statement from his company that the purchase will “give us a strong foothold in the direct response nutritional area and broaden our customer base in the mass market.”
Representatives of both Nutrition 21 and Nature’s Products did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
