The Vitamin Shoppe

The Vitamin Shoppe (formerly Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc., stylized as theVitaminShoppe) 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.[2]

Vitamin Shop Industries Inc.
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1977 (1977) (as Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc.)
HeadquartersSecaucus, New Jersey, U.S.[1]
Number of locations
785 (December 2017)[2]
Key people
Sharon Leite,[3] CEO; Bill Wafford,[4] CFO
ProductsNutritional supplements
ParentFranchise Group, Inc
Websitevitaminshoppe.com
Vitamin Shoppe store, Ann Arbor, Michigan

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.[5]

The Vitamin Shoppe held an initial public offering on October 26, 2009.[6] The company made $751.5 million in net sales in fiscal 2010 and had a market capitalization of over $1 billion.[7] Since attaining its peak in February 2013 the stock has lost more than 90% of its value as of August 2017.[8]

History

Jeffrey Horowitz founded The Vitamin Shoppe in 1977.[5][9] In August 2019, Franchise Group, Inc announced the pending acquisition of The Vitamin Shoppe.[10]

In August 2020, The Vitamin Shoppe reported it has hired Laura Coffey as Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer. Within this position, Ms. Coffey is in charge of Corporate Finance, Financial Reporting and Evaluation, Risk Control, Accounting, Internal Audit, Tax and Real Estate.[11]

Products
The Vitamin Shoppe Logo, 1977-2013

The Vitamin Shoppe's retail stores and online sites carry a line of nutritional supplements[12] 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.[13]

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.[14] 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."[15]

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,[16] 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.[17]

References
  1. "Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. Contact Us". The Vitamin Shoppe. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  2. "Vitamin Shoppe 2017 Annual Report" (PDF). The Vitamin Shoppe. 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  3. Chang, Sue. "Shares of Vitamin Shoppe rally as company names new CEO". Marketwatch. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  4. Garcia, Tonya. "Vitamin Shoppe names Bill Wafford CFO". Marketwatch. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  5. Sorkin, Andrew Ross (December 12, 2002). "Bear, Stearns Unit Is Said To Buy Vitamin Shoppe". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  6. "VITAMIN SHOPPE, INC.: VSI (NYSE)". Hoovers.
  7. "The Vitamin Shoppe - Investor Relations - Investor Relations Home". Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  8. "Yahoo Finance Chart".
  9. "A. The History of the Vitamin Shoppe". Storify.com. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  10. "The Vitamin Shoppe to be Acquired by Liberty Tax". Business Wire. San Francisco: Berkshire Hathaway. August 8, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  11. "The Vitamin Shoppe® Appoints Laura Coffey as EVP, Chief Financial Officer". Cision PR Newswire (Press release). August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  12. "Vitamin Shoppe Industries, Inc.: Introduction". eNotes. October 28, 2008.
  13. 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.
  14. Stenson, Jacqueline (January 19, 2007). "A Vitamin A Day May Do More Harm Than Good". NBC News.
  15. Douaud, Clarisse (January 26, 2007), "Vitamin Shoppe Calls for Independent Testing Procedures", nutraingredients-usa.com
  16. Cooperman, Tod (June 15, 2011). "Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review - Main Review". ConsumerLab. Retrieved August 18, 2011.(subscription required)
  17. Anderson, Mark (June 15, 2011). "Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review - Testing Method". ConsumerLab. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
    • Historical business data for The Vitamin Shoppe:
    • SEC filings
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