Acquisition Validates the Company’s High Growth M&A Strategy
Bonne Santé Group, Inc., an emerging growth global nutraceutical company, announced today that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Doctors Scientific Organica, LLC, an international food supplements company. The announcement was made jointly by Dr. Sasson Moulavi, the founder and principal of Doctors Scientific Organica and A.J. Cervantes, Jr., the Chairman of Bonne Santé Group.
Doctors Scientific Organica (“DSO”) is principally engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of a wide array of health & wellness foods, vitamins and supplements, including several weight loss products. Smart for Life®, the primary DSO brand, is sold in big box retailers such as Costco and Walmart, as well as through online retailers such as Amazon. DSO’s products include cookies, protein bars, shakes and similar products, which can be found on its website: www.smartforlife.com.
Concurrent with the DSO acquisition, Bonne Santé Group (“BSG”) completed an equity and debt financing that totaled $11 million, with four funds providing the equity financing and a commercial lender, Diamond Creek Capital, LLC, providing the senior secured debt. Dawson James Securities, Inc. served as the company’s investment bank and sole placement agent for the equity, and advisor for the debt in the transaction.
“This acquisition is a transformative event that will support Bonne Santé’s objective of creating a highly diversified and vertically integrated global nutraceutical company,” stated Mr. Cervantes. “Our vision at BSG is to develop and acquire multiple brands and sales channels for cross marketing goods and services. Our company will benefit by being able to deliver proprietary branded health & wellness products that are seeing extraordinary demand.”
“I am excited to join the team at Bonne Santé Group and become a major shareholder,” said Dr. Moulavi. “I share the company’s vison of building a high growth global nutraceutical company in the health & wellness sector and look forward to working with A.J. and the entire management team to accelerate DSO and Smart for Life’s product line into additional markets in the United States and around the world.”
DSO was founded by Dr. Sasson Moulavi, a prominent bariatric doctor and one of the select Bariatric Fellows in the United States. He is known as the innovator of the revolutionary Smart for Life Cookie Diet and the Smart for Life® brand, having been featured in various news segments and online videos over the past 20 years.
Ryan Zackon, Bonne Santé Group’s CEO noted, “DSO has grown the Smart for Life brand into a household name that creates immediate high-growth opportunities and will contribute additional revenue, product lines, R&D and successful distribution. My mission as CEO is to achieve additional operational efficiencies by leveraging my knowledge and expertise in the industry, as well as driving further growth through accretive acquisitions, and this is an exciting milestone for our company and our new employees.”
“Dr. Sass has created an extraordinary company and brand,” stated Darren Minton, Bonne Santé Group’s President. “Not only are several of their products currently being sold in major big box retailers with additional product lines ready for expansion, this acquisition further validates the concept of supporting shared management and market intelligence among our various facilities and healthy lifestyle categories.”
The acquisition will capitalize on numerous synergies, as well as health food bars becoming a major new product line for BSG as part of the transaction. High quality bar and cookie production is difficult to replicate, especially considering DSO’s significant track record of success with major brands and retailers. DSO represents the next, in a series of highly targeted acquisitions, with Bonne Santé’s sizeable M&A pipeline further validating its high-growth consolidation model.
