Amerifit Closes Culturelle Acquisition

BLOOMFIELD, Conn.—Amerifit Nutrition (www.amerifit.com) closed the acquisition of the Culturelle® brand probiotic supplement, originally announced in July 2006; the company reported Culturelle is the leading brand in the chain drug category and one of the fastest growing in the natural food channel, according to IRI and SPINS data, respectively. According to Amerifit, the product will continue to be distributed in all major pharmacy chains and natural health food stores, in addition to newly announced distribution at Wal-Mart. Amerifit plans to fully support and promote the product, by providing assistance to current studies with major universities and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as by developing a probiotic continuing education program for pharmacists. Culturelle will also be supported by an integrated medical and consumer advertising and marketing program.

“Of all the brands in the rapidly expanding probiotic category, only Culturelle contains Lactobacillus GG, and the amount and quality of research offers our retail partners and their customers the best scientific proof of effectiveness,” said Cyrill Siewert, chief executive officer (CEO) of Amerifit, noting more than 250 studies have been conducted on Lactobacillus GG, including double blind, placebo-controlled trials. “This acquisition is consistent with Amerifit Nutrition’s commitment to aggressively building our portfolio of category-leading consumer health care brands.”