Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1977; 47 years ago (1977) (as Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc.) |
Headquarters | Secaucus, New Jersey, U.S. |
Number of locations | 785 (December 2017) |
Key people | |
Products | Nutritional supplements |
Parent | Franchise Group |
Website | vitaminshoppe |
Footnotes / references |
The Vitamin Shoppe (formerly Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc., stylized as the VitaminShoppe) is an American, New Jersey–based retailer of nutritional supplements. It also operated three stores in Canada under the name VitaPath from January 2013 until March 2016. The company provides approximately 7,000 different SKUs of supplements through its retail stores and over 17,000 different SKUs of supplements through its retail websites.
Vitamin Shoppe was acquired by Franchise Group on December 16, 2019.
History
Jeffrey Horowitz founded The Vitamin Shoppe in 1977. In 2002, Vitamin Shoppe Industries was sold to an affiliate of Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, a private equity unit of Bear Stearns, for approximately $310 million.
The Vitamin Shoppe held an initial public offering on October 26, 2009. The company made $751.5 million in net sales in fiscal 2010 and had a market capitalization of over $1 billion. Since attaining its peak in February 2013, the stock has lost more than 90% of its value as of August 2017.
In August 2019, Franchise Group, Inc announced the acquisition of The Vitamin Shoppe.
In August 2020, The Vitamin Shoppe reported it has hired Laura Coffey as Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer.
On November 2, 2024, Franchise Group announced that they were preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after months of losses and turmoil caused by its owner, B. Riley Financial. HPS Investment Partners, a private equity firm, amongst other lenders, will take over the company once the restructuring is completed. On November 3, 2024, Franchise Group and all of its affiliated subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. The company plans to keep The Vitamin Shoppe open during the procedure.
Products
The Vitamin Shoppe's retail stores and online sites carry a line of nutritional supplements with supplementary lines, such as FitFactor, NatureFuel, ProBio Care, plnt and the Bodytech brand of sports supplements. In addition to their own brands, the company carries third-party lines, including professional and specialized lines.
A 2015 study, led by Dr. Pieter A. Cohen of Harvard, found that three supplements—JetFuel Superburn, JetFuel T-300 and MX-LS7—sold at Vitamin Shoppe contained BMPEA. In response, Vitamin Shoppe removed these products from shelves because the safety of these supplements were in question and may not comply with F.D.A. regulations.
Reception
On January 19, 2007, independent laboratory ConsumerLab.com found 32.8 micrograms of lead per daily serving in Vitamin Shoppe's "Especially for Women" multivitamin. 15.3 micrograms is more than ten times the amount of lead permitted without a warning label in California, the only state to regulate lead in supplements. The amount of lead found was found to cause cancer and death to 29 people nationwide. In the wake of extensive adverse media coverage, Vitamin Shoppe withdrew the product, but in a statement made by CEO Tom Tolworthy denied it had any proof the vitamins were contaminated and asserted that, despite the high lead levels found in the Consumer Labs tests, its vitamins were manufactured in accordance with "good manufacturing practices."
On June 15, 2011, Vitamin Shoppe's Ultimate Woman Gold multivitamin was tested by ConsumerLab.com in their Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review of 38 of the leading multivitamin/multimineral products sold in the U.S. and Canada. This multivitamin passed ConsumerLab's test, which included testing of selected index elements, their ability to disintegrate in solution per United States Pharmacopeia guidelines, lead contamination threshold set in California Proposition 65, and meeting U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements.
References
- "Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. Contact Us". The Vitamin Shoppe. Archived from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
- ^ "Vitamin Shoppe 2017 Annual Report" (PDF). The Vitamin Shoppe. 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
- "The Vitamin Shoppe Names Lee A. Wright as Chief Executive Officer and Muriel Gonzalez as President". May 26, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- "Franchise Group, Inc. Closes on the Acquisition of The Vitamin Shoppe". Nasdaq. December 16, 2019.
- ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (December 12, 2002). "Bear, Stearns Unit Is Said To Buy Vitamin Shoppe". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
- "A. The History of the Vitamin Shoppe". Storify.com. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
- "VITAMIN SHOPPE, INC.: VSI (NYSE)". Hoovers. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
- "The Vitamin Shoppe - Investor Relations - Investor Relations Home". Phx.corporate-ir.net. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- "Yahoo Finance Chart". Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- "The Vitamin Shoppe to be Acquired by Liberty Tax". Business Wire. San Francisco: Berkshire Hathaway. August 8, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- "Franchise Group Acquires Vitamin Shoppe | Mergr M&A Deal Summary". mergr.com. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- Thomas, Lauren (June 9, 2022). "Here's why Vitamin Shoppe's owner wants to buy Kohl's – and what could happen next". CNBC. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- NJBIZ (August 20, 2020). "Coffey in as The Vitamin Shoppe CFO". NJBIZ. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- "B. Riley-Backed Franchise Group Prepares to File for Bankruptcy". Bloomberg Law. November 2, 2024. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
- "Vitamin Shoppe Owner Franchise Group Filing for Bankruptcy". PYMNTS. November 3, 2024. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
- "Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc.: Introduction". eNotes. October 28, 2008. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2009.
- "The Vitamin Shoppe". The Healthy Living Coalition. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- O'Connor, Anahad (April 24, 2015). "F.D.A. Warns Supplement Makers of Stimulant Dangers". Well. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- O'Connor, Anahad (April 7, 2015). "Study Warns of Diet Supplement Dangers Kept Quiet by F.D.A." The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- Stenson, Jacqueline (January 19, 2007). "A Vitamin A Day May Do More Harm Than Good". NBC News. Archived from the original on March 18, 2013.
- Douaud, Clarisse (January 26, 2007), "Vitamin Shoppe Calls for Independent Testing Procedures", nutraingredients-usa.com
- Cooperman, Tod (June 15, 2011). "Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review - Main Review". ConsumerLab. Retrieved August 18, 2011.(subscription required)
- Anderson, Mark (June 15, 2011). "Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review - Testing Method". ConsumerLab. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
- Vitamin Shoppe Company History. Funding Universe
- New Vitamin Shoppe Leader. New York Times, June 22, 2001
- Spinoff is unspun. New York Times, January 17, 2001
External links
- Official website
- Historical business data for The Vitamin Shoppe:
- SEC filings
- Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
- Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey
- Health food stores
- 2002 mergers and acquisitions
- American companies established in 1977
- Retail companies established in 1977
- Food retailers of the United States
- Nutritional supplement companies of the United States
- 2009 initial public offerings
- 2019 mergers and acquisitions
- Secaucus, New Jersey
- 1977 establishments in New Jersey
- Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024