Dallas, October 11, 2018 – Kainos Capital (“Kainos”), a leading food and consumer- focused private equity firm, today announced that it has agreed to sell its portfolio company SlimFast to Glanbia plc in a transaction valued at $350 million. Thetransaction also includes SlimFast’s sister company, HNS.
Headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, SlimFast is a leading provider of nutritional products, including clinically proven weight management and health and wellness products. The brand today enjoys 98% consumer awareness with a broad offering of meal replacement beverages and snacks. Kainos acquired SlimFast from Unilever in 2014.
Andrew Rosen, Managing Partner of Kainos, said, “Our acquisition of SlimFast came with no employees or systems. Behind the leadership of CEO Chris Tisi, who we partnered with when we invested in his company HNS in 2014, we quickly built a 60- plus person team in the US and the UK. This team, combined with our own internal resources, did a great job revitalizing what was an orphan brand within a large multinational company. SlimFast is positioned to continue its great success as a part of Glanbia.”
Bob Sperry, a Partner of Kainos, said, “Chris led our very talented team in the development of a comprehensive game plan for restoring SlimFast to its former success. This included redesigning the packaging across the product range and leveraging the great clinical studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of its products. We also relaunched advertising campaigns that resonated with our consumers and supported innovative new product platforms. The result was a dramatic turnaround in the sales trajectory such that for the last three years SlimFast was the fastest-growing brand in the weight management category in the US and the largest brand in the UK”
Chris Tisi, CEO of SlimFast, said, “It was very important for us to work with our retail partners to reclaim the SlimFast heritage, which is providing effective solutions for real people who desire to lose weight or live a healthy lifestyle. By partnering with Kainos, my team and I had the resources and support to dramatically increase our consumer base and offer a variety of innovative, great-tasting and effective products, including high-protein SlimFast Advanced, SlimFast Advanced Energy with caffeine, and our most recent Keto product offering.”
Completion of the transaction is expected before the end of the year.
Harris Williams and Sawaya Partners served as financial advisors to SlimFast, and Winston & Strawn served as legal counsel.