Ransom buys Health Perception for £7.8m
Financial Times: Apr 16, 2004 By Siobhan Cassidy
 William Ransom, the natural healthcare company, is buying Health Perception UK for £7.83m in cash and shares in its fifth acquisition in three years. Health Perception, the market leader in the rapidly growing glucosamine market, supplies branded vitamins, minerals and health food supplements to high street retailers including Boots, Tesco, Superdrug and JSainsbury.
Ransom said it anticipated distribution synergies in home and export markets and said the acquisition should be earnings-enhancing within the current year. David Wilkie MBE, Health Perception's founder and chief executive, and well known as an Olympic gold medal winner for swimming, is to remain with the business for at least two years.
Mr Wilkie said Health Perception joining Ransom "allows us to take the business to the next stage with access to wider distribution as well as Ransom's proven expertise in branded consumer healthcare products and product development skills".
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd
Wilkie Strikes More Gold with vitamin deal
Daily Telegraph: (April 16th, 2004)
David Wilkie, the Olympic swimming gold medallist, stands to collect almost £8m by selling his vitamin business, Health Perception, to William Ransom & Son in a cash and shares deal.
Mr Wilkie, 50, founded the business in 1989. He and his wife, who is marketing director, will remain with the business for at least two years. They will receive £4.3m in cash and a further £3.5m in Ransom shares. The Scottish swimmer won Olympic gold in 1976 with a 200m breaststroke world record. Tim Dye, chief executive of Ransom, a natural supplements and pharmaceuticals businesss, said he had bought the Health Perception business because of its strong position in the growing glucosamine market. "Not only is Mr Wilkie, slightly annoyingly, a top sportsman, he's also a very good businessman," he said.
Glucosamine, which is used by the body to manufacture molecules called glycosaminoglycans, found in cartilege, is used by athletes because it is claimed that it reduces pain in the joints. It is also beneficial to sufferers of osteoarthritis.
Health Perception also sells other branded vitamins and health food supplements, including a product called Cognito Energy, which claims to increase brain cell function.
"This is a growing company in a growing market," Mr Dye said. Asked whether he thought that Mr Wilkie's former sporting achievements were an asset when looking at the business, he replied: "Well, it can't do any harm, can it? I think when it was a very small company and David Wilkie called up and said 'can I talk to you about my products?' it would have interested people."
Health Perception also uses rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio to advertise some of its products and Mr Dye said this was a relationship it would maintain.
© Copyright The Daily Telegraph Ltd
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