Karma Acquires Distribution Of Optimum Nutrition and ABB
We heard this news almost 3 months ago but it’s now out in the open. After 17 years with the same Canadian distributor, Optimum Nutrition has switched distributors! People on the business side will know that Upper49th Imports was the Canadain distributor of Optimum (and their sister company American Body Building) for 17 years, so this is a big change. It’s a real shame for Upper49th to lose this line since they built the brand up since its begins in Canada. To lose it after 17 years of hard work is a disappointment for them for sure. However, it’s a new chance for new distributor Karma and Optimum to shake things up in Canada.
“While some people may feel this is an abrupt change for a brand that has been with the same distributor for 17 years it really has been an evolution,” says David Strickland, Sr. VP of Sales Optimum Nutrition. “We appreciate the work of our past distributor partner but we felt that we had reached an unacceptable plateau and penetration within the Canadian Market and were misaligned in our business strategies on how to move the business forward”.
Optimum Nutrition and American Body Building (ABB) are dominant force in the sports nutrition industry with the high-quality products available in health food stores, specialty stores, gyms and progressive retailers everywhere. As of late, ABB focuses mostly on Ready-To-Drink supplements or on the go nutrition.
“The partnership with Optimum Nutrition and ABB is an absolute honour for our company,” says Greg Cowan President Karma Nutritionals. “We are excited beyond words to work with this industry leader.”
So What’s The Big Deal?
This Optimum Nutrition brand further solidifies Karma as a key distributor in the industry. Getting the ABB line with it is a bonus for sure. The ABB line puts Karma as a drink distributor also, since that’s pretty much all that ABB makes, with the exception of a few bars and other on-the-go nutrition products. Karma now distributes PharmaFreak Technologies, Hyperstrength, Inner Armour, Dorian Yates Nutrition, GNU Bars, Steve Nash’s OneBode and over 200 Nature’s Plus products. The addition of Optimum certainly puts them in the same league as the top Canadian distributors like Nutrition Club, True North and Empire Health.
About Optimum Nutrition
Optimum Nutrition, Inc. (ON) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Glanbia, a leading international cheese and nutritional ingredients group. ON owns and operates two brands of nutritional supplements (Optimum Nutrition and American Body Building) providing a comprehensive line of products across multiple categories. You may also know that Optimum Nutrition won Bodybuilding.com’s prestigious “Brand of The Year” award at this year’s Mr. Olympia competition. Of course, their 100% Gold Standard Whey has been one of the top selling protein powders in the world for many years.
About Karma Nutritionals
Karma Nutritionals Inc. is a worldwide distributor of sports and wellness supplements with exclusive distribution of brands including: Inner Armour, PharmaFreak, GNU Bars, and Steve Nash’s OneBode. Karma has also brought 200 plus Nature’s Plus products to Canada. Familiar faces are at the helm of this entity; Greg Cowan, former owner of PureSource, Jennifer Walker long time Marketing Director at Fit Foods and Steve Gibb, former GM of EAS Canada have joined forces to head up Karma Nutritionals. Their company was born out of a desire to provide superior products, outstanding service, and to forge strong relationships with customers and vendors. Karma Nutritionals was aptly named to make certain that all decisions came from a place of health, prosperity and happiness in order to reap the rewards.
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