The one thing the majority of Americans can agree on is you cannot trust big corporations to follow laws and regulations. This includes manufacturing and selling safe, high quality herbal and vitamin supplements.
The Investment Banker Herbal Manufacturer
The Nature’s Bounty Company:
It’s a great name for an herbal supplement manufacturer; “Nature’s Bounty”. It instills in the mind of the consumer “all natural, pure, earthly, and free of contaminants. But in reality the company is owned by an international assets management & private equity group, The Carlyle Group; Investment Bankers. Founded in 1987, The Carlyle Group has grown to more than 1,550 employees, approximately $162 billion in assets under management and 31 offices across six continents. Carlyle manages 299 investment vehicles that invest across four segments in 10 core industries.
The Carlyle Group manages their Nature’s Bounty Company just as well as they do The Carlyle Group itself. During the economic collapse of 2008, the group received $153 million in taxpayer funded TARP bailout money from the US Treasury. Maybe you should contact them and request some vitamins at no charge; as a taxpayer you have already paid for them.
The political power of The Carlyle Group is evident in the fact that they were never mentioned in any of the numerous lawsuits filed by State Attorney Generals, as being the owners of the various companies and brand names that come under The Nature’s Bounty Company ( has been renamed NBTY).
Forbes lists The Nature’s Bounty Company (NBTY) as being #140 of America’s largest private companies with annual revenue of 3.2 billion dollars.
In addition to its own brand name supplements, the investment bankers also supply the "store brands" of the major retail chain stores. Walmart, Target, and Walgreens stocks of supplements are all manufactured by the same Investment Bankers under different brand names; not some old hippie with an organic farm.
The Nature’s Bounty Company’s Brands:
NATURE’S BOUNTY, SOLGAR, HOLLAND & BARRETT, MET-RX, BALANCE, OSTEO BI-FLEX, PURITIAN’S PRIDE, ESTER-C, BODY FORTRESS, SUNDOWN NATURALS, PURE PROTIEN, AMERICAN HEALTH, SISU, DE TUINEN, ORGANIC DOCTOR, PHYSIOLOGICS, HOME HEALTH
The Carlyle Group does not seem to be able to abide by any laws governing the manufacturing, or marketing of its Nature’s Bounty Company products. Recently, its Puritan’s Pride brand of herbal & vitamin supplements has become the target of a class action lawsuit over fake sale pricing. According to the lawsuit, Puritan’s Pride uses fake sale pricing to tempt customers into spending more money than they would have if they did not think they were getting a better deal than usual.
Puritan’s Pride is accused of advertising endless “Buy One Get One Free” (BOGO) sales. According to the class action lawsuit, the Buy One Get One Free sales at Puritan’s Pride were kept up year round for approximately the last 4 years in violation of federal guidelines. According to FTC regulations, Buy One Get One Free sales may last no longer than 6 months during any given 12-month period. This is meant to separate regular pricing from discount pricing, so customers are aware of whether or not they are actually getting a special deal and can base their decision to purchase off of this.
Discount pricing that lasts the majority of the year essentially becomes regular pricing, and the consumers that purchase products because of these discounts may be being misled about the deal they are getting by buying these products during the supposed sale period.
So, if you believe that the same Investment bankers that destroyed the world’s economy and plunged us into nation of people without decent jobs (and also had the taxpayers pay for their reckless conduct) will supply you with quality herbal & vitamin supplements…go ahead and support them; keep buying their products.