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NBTY, the New York based manufacturer of nutritional supplements, has just announced that they have expanded their global reach by purchasing Julian Graves, the UK’s largest independent specialty natural foods manufacturer.

Julian Graves has a network of over 300 stores across the UK and has annual sales of over $120 million dollars. The acquisition will expand NBTY’s European division greatly from just over 600 stores, to well over 900 stores.

NBTY, one of the largest nutritional supplement makers in the US, currently sells products both the retail distribution and by independent distributors around the world through its subsidiaries such as Natures Bounty, Vitamin World, Puritans Pride and MET-Rx.

Just this past June, NBTY won a bidding war during which it acquired a bankrupt California competitor, Leiner Health Products,-www.leiner.com- That acquisition greatly expanded the company’s position in the U.S. The $25 million dollar purchase of Julian Grace enhances NBTY’s position as the number one supplement retailer in the UK and will allow the company to gain a greater market share.

“The acquisition of Julian Graves is an integral part of NBTY’s strategic plan to enhance its position as the number one supplement retailer in the UK and gain greater market share,” says NBTY chairman and CEO Scott Rudolph. “We continue to seek acquisitions which generate growth and further entrench NBTY as the worldwide leader in the nutritional supplement industry.”

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NBTY- a global wellness and nutritional supplement company based out of Bohemia, NY - saw its stock take a sharp fall last Friday after announcing that shares of NBTY Inc missed Wall Street’s expectations.

NBTY operates both with the network marketing platform and through retail sales. The company operates under NBTY and is also marketed other third party brands, including Vitamin World and Natures Bounty. The global company offers offer 22,000 products and nutritional supplements.

Late last week, NBTY reported that their earning for the period ending March 31st fell 23 percent to $44.2 million, compared with $57.4 million from a year earlier.

While many industry experts feel that the decline in earning and shares is most likely a timing issue, the company blamed increasing costs of advertising, as well as selling, general and administrative costs as the cause of the decline in earnings.

In the next few weeks, many of the larger Network Marketing Companies will be reporting their earnings. So far, the news has not been as stellar as either the industry or Wall Street has predicted with the exception of Avon. Generally speaking Network Marketing companies do well in tough economic times as people need extra income. Many companies see a large rise in the number of distributors. We will see in the next few weeks whether the increase in distributors translates into dollars for the companies.

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