BY-HEALTH and Nutrition Giant NBTY Hold Hands to Take the 

First Step Towards Global Brand Integration

2016-03-11

On March 11, 2016, By-HEALTH announced an agreement for the establishment of a joint venture with NBTY, one of the largest dietary supplement companies in the world. In this joint venture, By-HEALTH plans to inject the capital values of CNY80 million to CNY120 million, holding a 60 percent stake, while NBTY is going to infuse its business lines of Nature's Bounty and Met-RX, two brands which have already been in the Chinese market, as well as its cross-border e-commerce into the joint venture, with a 40% stake. The joint venture will boast the permanent management right and trademark use right for the two brands in Chinese market. Tang Hui, Chairman of By-HEALTH, will serve as the chairman of the new joint venture. By-HEALTH will send CEO and major management team, and NBTY will contribute the CFO and a partial team. After the founding of the joint venture, both parties will take their respective full advantages in R&D, brand, channel and marketing to form tremendous “synergy effects”, to jointly contribute to the health industry in China.

NBTY, Inc., founded in 1971 and headquartered in New York, USA, is an integrated company which involves R&D, production and sales of high quality dietary supplements, and also one of the largest companies within the industry around the world. NBTY boasts many globally well-known brands, including Nature's Bounty®, Sundown Naturals®, Osteo Bi-Flex®, Solgar ®, Balance Bar®, MET-Rx®, Pure Protein®, Body Fortress®, Puritan's Pride®, Holland & Barrett® and many others. The products of NBTY have already entered more than 120 countries. Up to the 2015 fiscal year, the total sales of NBTY had reached USD3.23 billion.

Nature's Bounty, a major brand of NBTY for sale in the US and the world, has reached out to many nations including the US, Canada and the UK. Since the introduction of Nature's Bounty to the Chinese market, through years of management, NBTY has accumulated favorable brand recognition and public praise. Met-RX is a top sports nutrition brand subordinated to NBTY, a global leading brand in sports nutrition supplements. It entered China in 2006 and grew rapidly as one of the best-selling imported sports nutrition brands in China.

For By-HEALTH, this cooperation finally attained its wish to partner with the world famous dietary supplement brand. Meanwhile, the joint venture won the permanent management right of Nature’s Bounty and Met-RX in the Chinese mainland market, which has further laid the groundwork for By-HEALTH to take leadership in the Chinese dietary supplement market. By-HEALTH CEO Lin Zhicheng holds that By-HEALTH has taken the first critical step towards the strategy of global brand integration. For NBTY, the joint venture enables it to use By-HEALTH’s favorable channel and network resources to rapidly improve sales and influence of the two brands in China, and also provides NBTY with the advantage of By-HEALTH’s approval superiority and its world-leading “transparent factory” to realize the local production of some products. "We are very honored to be partnering with By-HEALTH which is the leader in the dietary supplement industry in China," said Steve Cahillane, President and CEO of NBTY.

Experts believe, compared with the past acquisitions of internationally well-known brands by Chinese corporations that cost billions of yuan, this joint venture is indeed a brilliant move, a great innovation of association between strong enterprises; it marks the first step towards industrial and brand integration in the dietary supplement industry and will be of tremendous significance.