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LONDON — Unilever is selling its Slim-Fast brand to Kainos Capital LLC, a Dallas-based private equity firm focused on acquiring and managing food and consumer brands.
Unilever is selling its Slim-Fast brand to Kainos Capital LLC, a Dallas-based private equity firm focused on acquiring and managing food and consumer brands.
Unilever acquired the line of ready-to-drink nutritional supplements in 2000, when Slim-Fast was a major weight-loss brand in the United States. But the brand had been losing money, according to Bloomberg News, as consumers shy away from crash diets as a weight-loss strategy.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Chris Tisi, the founder and chief executive officer of Healthy Delights, will become the new CEO of Slim-Fast, Kainos announced. Slim-Fast will become part of the company’s health and wellness portfolio, which includes Healthy Delights dietary supplements.
Kainos has made more than 40 investments, including deals involving such recognizable food brands as Ghirardelli chocolates, Chef Boyardee pasta, Bumble Bee tuna and Vlasic pickles.
Unilever has been reshaping its business to focus on higher-margin personal-care brands.
"The Slim-Fast sale is the last step in the portfolio reshaping that we had planned for North America," Kees Kruythoff, Unilever North America president, said in a statement. "This transaction, along with previously announced divestitures, will give us the focus to drive growth behind our core portfolio."
