The Vitamin Shoppe Changes Ownership

NEW YORK--Bear Stearns Merchant Banking bought Vitamin Shoppe Industries (dba The Vitamin Shoppe). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the bank was reported to have paid $300 million for the 120-store chain.

In 1997, J.P. Morgan Partners and FdG Associates were the primary owners of the company, holding 70 percent of the business. According to an FdG spokesperson, the companies now hold around 5 percent. The Vitamin Shoppe's founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Jeffrey Horowitz, and president and chief operating officer, Thomas Tolworthy, will continue to head the company's retail operations. Doug Korn and Rick Perkal, senior managing directors at Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, have joined The Vitamin Shoppe's board of directors.

Since receiving FdG and J.P. Morgan as financial partners, The Vitamin Shoppe has grown from 18 stores in the metro New York area to 120 stores in 14 states and the Washington, D.C., area, growth that lent a hand to quadrupled sales. There are plans for The Vitamin Shoppe (www.vitaminshoppe.com) to expand into California by the end of this year.