Vitamin Shoppe pops an IPO pill

Founded in the late 1970s, Vitamin Shoppe is now a top specialty retailer of vitamins, minerals, herbs, supplements, sports nutrition and other healthy things. Each store has 8,500 items and there are 11,500 items from catalogs and www.vitaminshoppe.com.

Currently, there are 317 stores in 31 states. The company has also been growing nicely. Since 2003, revenues have increased from $331.2 million to $486 million. In fact, Vitamin Shoppe has generated positive comparable store sales growth for 15 consecutive years.

What's more, the main shareholder of the company is Bear Stearns Merchant Banking (the investment was struck in November 2002). To get the deal done, the firm piled a lot of debt on the balance sheet. But with the IPO proceeds, this is likely to be reduced.
source:www.bloggingstocks.com