“We are delighted to welcome SmartyPants Vitamins to the Unilever family and our portfolio of purpose‐led brands," Fabian Garcia, President of Unilever North America, said in the release. "SmartyPants Vitamins aligns strongly with our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of consumers and empower people to take charge of their health with solutions they can understand and trust.”
SmartyPants was founded in 2011 by Courtney Nichols Gould and Gordon Gould. Based in Los Angeles, the company works with non-GMO certified ingredients, and the line is free from synthetic colors, artificial flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives.
“SmartyPants Vitamins complements Unilever’s portfolio of brands (Horlicks, OLLY, Equilibra and Liquid I.V) in the functional nutrition and supplement segment," said Peter Ter Kulve, President of Health & Wellbeing at Unilever. "We are excited to work with co‐founders Courtney and Gordon and their team to grow their innovative and data driven business model.”
SmartyPants also, the release notes, has a longstanding partnership with Vitamin Angels to provide vitamins for mothers, expectant mothers, and children in need worldwide.
Courtney Nichols Gould & Gordon Gould, Co‐founders and Co‐CEO’s of SmartyPants Vitamins, said: “From the start, SmartyPants Vitamins has been about family, authenticity and a core commitment to our collective well‐being. We are excited to work with Unilever to grow the SmartyPants brand.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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In other Unilever news, the company has completed the unification of its Group legal structure under the single parent company Unilever PLC, according to a separate press release.Nils Andersen, Chairman of Unilever, stated in the press release: “This is an important day for Unilever and we would like to thank our shareholders for their strong support of our Unification proposals, which give us greater flexibility for strategic portfolio change, remove complexity and further improve governance.”
The company will now trade with one market capitalization, one class of shares, and one global pool of liquidity. It will maintain the Group’s listings on the Amsterdam, London, and New York stock exchanges.
The press release notes that the Foods & Refreshment Division will continue to be based in Rotterdam and the Home Care and Beauty & Personal Care divisions will continue to be headquartered in the United Kingdom. There will be no change to the operations, locations, activities, or staffing levels in either country.
