GNC, Rexall Help Royal Numico Post Galactic Growth in First Half of 2000

GNC, Rexall Help Royal Numico Post Galactic Growth in First Half of 2000

ZOETERMEER, The Netherlands--Royal Numico recorded a 1,300-percent increase in worldwide nutritional sales for the first six months of 2000, compared to the same period the year prior. Sales rocketed to $906.4 million on the strength of expanding contributions from two recent acquisitions--General Nutrition Companies (GNC) in summer 1999 and Rexall Sundown in May 2000. Numico predicted that worldwide sales of its nutritional supplements will top $2 billion for the year.

GNC rose about 15.4 percent vs. a year ago, due in part to the introduction of Numico-developed products in GNC outlet stores. Numico management reported that it is more heavily reliant on nutritional supplement sales than ever before, following its acquisition of GNC and Rexall. For the first half of 1999, supplement sales accounted for 8.3 percent of total revenues, while they accounted for 52.1 percent of revenues in the first six months of 2000. With Rexall and GNC, Numico now enjoys a reported 26.2-percent share of the U.S. supplement market. Numico announced plans to devote a good deal of attention and resources to its growing nutritional supplements division, including the addition of 11 new researchers to the division, patenting several novel ingredient combinations and conducting 11 clinical trials to confirm the efficacy of various products and to verify label claims. It will also introduce successful U.S. brands into its foreign markets, including placement of Rexall's Pokemon vitamins in Europe by November 2000. Nutrition products from Met-Rx, acquired by Rexall in December 1999, will also hit Europe in November, and a line of Rexall supplements will hit the same continent in February 2001.