MAXIMUSCLE SELLS COMPANY
The largest supplement company in Europe is called Maximuscle and they've just announced that they've sold their company! This is HUGE news around the supplement industry because the buyer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world! The British sports nutrition company is the biggest seller of bodybuilding and sports supplements in Europe. Maximuscle was started by a colleague of MUSCLE INSIDER columnist Mark Gilbert who's name is Zef Eisenberg back in 1995 when sports supplements were just getting going. He started the company with about 5,000 dollars and sales gradually increased to about $36 million pounds (translated $56,729,787.48 dollars in Canada) and now Glaxo has paid over 160,000 million pounds for it! Translated into Canadian dollars for the rest of us that's $252,183,617.03.
Science Backed Philosophy
According to Mark Gilbert, Maximuscle has grown consistently since its inception and recently at about 21% anually, using their science-backed philosophy and sports-driven marketing. They do a full range of premium-priced, scantily-labelled products for bodybuilders but increasingly for sports athletes and for the mainstream. They have also just released the Maxitone line for women (a sector that is virtually non-existent in the UK as compared to the USA and Canada). This adds to GlaxoSmithKline's portfolio of Lucozade (the European equivalent of Gatorade) and other consumer health goods.