· NBJ’s 2007 Healthy Foods Report is Now Available
· Live Webinar to analyze the $228-billion global nutrition industry
· Carotenoids, vitamin E help boost Cognis' sales in first half of 2007
· Perrigo reports record sales for FY 2007, 4Q
· Whole Foods and Wild Oats cleared for merger
· Private equity firms invest in HerbalScience Nutraceuticals
· Mannatech founder Sam Caster resigns as CEO
· New Visa rewards card launches to help consumers pay for healthcare, wellness
· Cartoon Network announces new guidelines for food, beverage licensing
· Kraft launches diabetes-focused radio show
· USANA unveils new earth-friendly headquarters
· Vanderbilt researchers examine under-dosing in vitamin E studies
NBJ PRODUCTS
NBJ’s 2007 Healthy Foods Report is now available. This exclusive report helps you size your market and assess your competition. Learn about current trends, competition, strategy, sales channels, activities of major corporations and changes in ingredient supply sectors.
NBJ’s Live Review of the Global Nutrition Market: this webinar will analyze trends and statistics in the $228 billion global nutrition market on Tuesday, August 28 at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Registration for the Webinar is available at
www.nutritionbusiness.com. Companies that register for $495 can use up to six log-in points and receive a comprehensive data set on the global market in electronic format. The presentation and discussion will be moderated by NBJ Editor Grant Ferrier, who will be joined by global supplement markets expert Adrienne Crossley from Euromonitor.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Cognis’ Nutrition & Health division recorded a 6.2 percent increase in sales for the first half of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, according to an Aug. 22 release. The division’s sales were nearly $236 million (174 million euros; 1 EUR = 1.36 USD), and growth was “largely attributable to products for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and the carotenoids (antioxidants) and vitamin E businesses,” Cognis says. According to the release, sales of branded ingredients such as sterol esters (Vegapure) and CLA (Tonalin) have “slightly slowed down.” The global specialty chemicals company’s net external sales also rose 6.2 percent over the year-ago period, reaching $2.5 billion (1,821 million euros) for the first half of 2007, the release says.
Perrigo reports record sales for fiscal 2007 and the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2007 in an Aug. 23 release. The private labeler says full year revenue increased 6 percent to $1.45 billion and fourth quarter earnings rose 53 percent to $23 million. The firm’s Consumer Healthcare segment reports fiscal year 2007 sales of $1.04 billion, up four percent from fiscal year 2006. “The sales increase was driven by new product sales of $69 million, largely nicotine gum and nicotine lozenge smoking cessation products,” according to the Allegan, Mich.-based firm. Fourth quarter sales for the Consumer Healthcare segment decreased $1 million to $257.3 million, Perrigo reports.
TRANSACTIONS
Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats have cleared the last expected legal hurdle confronting their merger, according to an Aug. 23 release. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied FTC’s request to delay the completion of the transaction pending the outcome of its appeal and dissolved an Aug. 20 administrative injunction, which had prevented the deal from moving forward while the court considered FTC’s motion. “We look forward to closing this merger and believe the synergies gained from the combination will create long-term value for our customers, vendors and shareholders as well as exciting opportunities for new and existing team members,” Whole Foods CEO John Mackey said. The Austin, Texas-based firm’s tender offer to purchase outstanding shares of common stock of Wild Oats expires Monday Aug. 27, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. EST, according to the release.
HerbalScience Nutraceuticals announces Aug. 14 the completion of a convertible preferred unit investment in HerbalScience by private equity firms Aisling Capital and Weston Presidio. The life sciences company has developed “an advanced, proprietary, and environmentally-friendly extraction technology which enables the production of dose-to-dose reliable whole botanical extracts,” according to the release. “We are excited to partner with the HerbalScience team to help them bring a new and novel technology to the nutraceutical and functional food industry,” Weston Presidio Partner Mark Bono said. “We are looking forward to building an international brand through commercialization of the technology with partners in high growth consumer product areas,” he added.
BUSINESS NEWS
Mannatech founder Sam Caster has resigned as CEO of the Coppell, Texas-based firm, according to an Aug. 21 release. Caster will continue to serve as chairman of the board, the firm says. Terry Persinger, Mannatech’s current president and COO, will serve as interim CEO while the firm conducts a “formal search for a permanent replacement,” the release says. According to Caster, the move will allow him to “return to [his] passion for working with independent Associate leaders to transition to the new global wellness sales program and focus on future growth opportunities including skin care, new technologies, and additional global expansion.” Separately, Mannatech announces Aug. 17 the termination of Raymond Gebauer, a top independent sales associate recently convicted for tax evasion. A lawsuit filed against the company in July by the Texas Attorney General is still in litigation, according to the AG’s office. Mannatech, Caster and several related entities were charged with “operating an illegal marketing scheme.”
Lifespring Health and financial holding company National City announce Aug. 22 the launch of the Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa credit card, a no-annual-fee credit card “dedicated to helping people pay for their healthcare expenses.” According to a release, under the program, reward points earned on “everyday purchases” are deposited into a member’s account. The points can then be redeemed to pay for “health services, prescriptions, elective medical procedures, gym memberships, wellness products, health insurance premiums, HAS contributions, and much more,” Lifespring says. Additionally, members can earn up to 10 percent in points when shopping online with companies in the Lifespring Health preferred retail network. The network of more than 250 retail partners includes GNC, Drugstore.com, Wal-Mart and Target, according to the firm’s Web site. “The Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa credit card is like a frequent flier program for healthcare,” Lifespring CEO Mark Pearson said.
Cartoon Network announces the adoption of new food and beverage-related guidelines as well as a pledge to develop additional programming “integrating positive messages regarding nutrition and activity” in an Aug. 17 release. “Cartoon Network believes in a fully comprehensive approach to overall child health,” Stuart Snyder, executive vice president and COO of Turner’s Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group, said. The guidelines govern the use of the network’s licensed characters and are based on nutritional standards issued by the Institute of Medicine and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the release says. Cartoon Network’s announcement follows similar announcements by Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids. Nickelodeon announced its plans in a letter to Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, who addressed the issue of junk food marketing and childhood obesity during a June hearing, “Images Kids See on the Screen.”
Kraft Foods announces Aug. 21 the launch of an initiative “designed to provide support for the millions of Americans living with diabetes.” Called Good Eating, Good Living, the initiative includes a syndicated radio show, an ongoing direct mail publication and a Web site intended for individuals with diabetes and their caregivers, Kraft says. Amy Hendel, a “health and lifestyle expert” and a registered physician assistant, will host the show, which will also include segments with registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator Edye Wagner, Kraft says.
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
USANA Health Sciences announces Aug. 21 the formal opening of its new “earth-friendly” headquarters in West Valley City, Utah. According to a release, the environmentally friendly redesign of the buildings and grounds includes a new 75,000-square-foot office tower, three-level parking structure and 84,000-square-foot addition to its warehouse and manufacturing facility. Solar panels installed on the new buildings will provide power for “two floors of the corporate office and the entire parking terrace,” USANA says. Additionally, the company estimates 750,000 gallons of water a year will be saved by xeriscape landscaping of the headquarters’ grounds. The changes are part of the company’s USANAgreen initiative, which aims to reduce the company’s waste, increase its efficiency and lessen USANA’s impact on the environment, the release says. “USANA recognizes that human health and environmental health go hand in hand,” President Dave Wentz says. “As a manufacturer of health and nutrition products, we have a responsibility to protect, preserve and promote the integrity of our environment.”
RESEARCH NEWS
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center suggest under-dosing may be behind the “reported failure of vitamin E to prevent heart attacks,” according to an Aug. 22 release. Previous studies were “designed in a way they never assessed the ability of the dose of vitamin E tested to reduce oxidant stress,” Division of Clinical Pharmacology Chief Jason Morrow, M.D., comments in the release. In the new study published early online in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Morrow and lead author Jack Roberts, M.D., determined the optimum antioxidant dose of vitamin E using an assay they developed to measure F2-isoprostanes, compounds formed by oxidative stress processes, the release says. Roberts and Morrow found 1600 IU of vitamin E per day was needed to cause a significant reduction in oxidative stress. The researchers note they are not suggesting people consume large doses of vitamin E since long-term safety-data is lacking. Rather, “We are saying that, in the design of clinical trials, one needs to have good surrogate biochemical markers,” Morrow says. The researchers also say they observed only a 50 percent reduction in F2-isoprastanes with a 1600 IU dose of the vitamin. “So, in my opinion, vitamin E is not the spiffy antioxidant everybody thinks it is – it’s a pretty poor antioxidant,” Roberts comments.
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