NUTRAMAX TO BUY PRIVATE-LABEL COUGH DROP MANUFACTURER POWERS PHARMACEUTICAL
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
NUTRAMAX TO BUY PRIVATE-LABEL COUGH DROP MANUFACTURER POWERS PHARMACEUTICAL underan agreement announced Nov. 16. NutraMax Products noted that Brockton, Mass.-based Powers is the "nation's leading manufacturer and distributor of private-label cough drops and throat lozenges, and it also manufactures cough drops on a contract basis for a major national brand." Powers reported sales of almost $ 16 mil. in the fiscal year ended June 26. The acquisition of Powers "broadens our product line, enhances the company's position as an important private-label supplier to our retail customers, and reduces the company's reliance on any one product," NutraMax President and CEO Donald Lepone stated. Lepone added that "with the sales and marketing expertise of NutraMax, we anticipate being able to significantly increase sales of Powers' private-label products." Completion of the deal is expected to occur "shortly" and is "contingent upon certain conditions." Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The purchase of Powers is the third acquisition this year for NutraMax, a Gloucester, Mass.-based private-label manufacturer and marketer of such products as douches, ready-to-use enemas and pediatric electrolyte oral maintenance solutions. In March, the firm acquired private-label eye care products firm Optopics ("The Tan Sheet" March 15, p. 12). NutraMax also is planning a late fall introduction of private-label clotrimazole cream and inserts following an agreement with an undisclosed supplier ("The Tan Sheet" July 12, In Brief). Separately, NutraMax expects to begin shipments of bubble gum- flavored oral maintenance solution to its private-label customers in January. The new flavor is a generic copy of Abbott Labs' bubble gum-flavored Pedialyte oral maintenance solution and follows UBI's recent launch of a bubble gum-flavored version of its oral maintenance solution, Naturalyte ("The Tan Sheet" Oct. 18, In Brief). Powers recently bolstered its throat-drop line with the addition of 30-count bags of sugar-free cough suppressant drops in menthol and cherry flavors, joining the growing market of sugar-free throat lozenges (Hershey's Luden's sugar-free throat drops and F&F Labs' Sugar-Free All-Herbal Cough & Throat Drops). Powers also has begun rolling out its throat lozenges in 16-count blister packs similar to SmithKline Beecham's 'Ice in cherry, citrus and menthol flavors.
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