Jamieson Wellness acquires Youtheory line of collagen supplements
Jamieson, one of Canada’s leading dietary supplement manufacturers, announced the deal yesterday. In the announcement Jamieson projected Nutrawise’s annual revenue at $155 million to $159 million and its immediate EBIDTA contribution at between $28 million to $29 million.
“This transaction is a major strategic milestone for Jamieson, accelerating our expansion in the world’s largest vitamin, mineral and supplement market,” said Mike Pilato, President and CEO of Jamieson Wellness.
Youtheory was founded in 2010 by the husband and wife entrepreneur team of Darren and Patty Rude. The company, which marketed its collagen supplements in distinctive square bottles, was one of the drivers of the new wave of collagen acceptance, which saw the protein expand far beyond just topical beauty applications.
Collagen was once denigrated as a low-quality protein lacking tryptophan, one of the essential amino acids, hence scoring a 0 on the widely accepted PDCAAS (protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score). The amino acid profile of egg protein is the gold standard on that scale.
The unlikely hero ingredient
But youtheory and some other brands, along with collagen peptide suppliers like Gelita and Rousselot, began making the case for particular benefits connected to collagen, which is the most abundant protein in the body. In addition, the concern about the missing amino acid abated, as most people get adequate levels of all of the amino acids in a standard diet, and it wasn’t seen as necessary to have every protein source be as complete as possible. This helped complete collagen’s remarkable transformation from a commodity added into things like protein bars to shore up label claims to hero ingredient in its own right.
In the years since, the Rudes began diversifying the brand by the use of other ingredients, including turmeric and, notably, the branded immune health ingredient Wellmune.
Jamieson made its first acquisition in 2002. In 2014 the company was sold to US private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors in a deal valued at $300 million. The firm went public in 2017. For most of the past year the company’s shares, which trade on the Toronto and OTC exchanges, hovered at between $25 and $30 a share. The announcement of the acquisition gave the price a 10% bump in trading yesterday, from about $26 a share to $28.82 at closing. Jamieson reported $451 million in its statement of fiscal 2021 annual revenue, which represented an 11.7% year-over-year increase.
