Bodybuilder’s Supplement Company Hits the Auction Block

A nutritional supplement business led by former professional bodybuilder Rich Gaspari has collapsed into bankruptcy under the weight of $16 million in debt.

Annual sales for Gaspari Nutrition Inc.’s muscle-building formulas like “Aminolast,” “Super Pump,” and “MyoFusion Advanced” have fallen from a peak of $78 million in 2011, said lawyers who put the New Jersey company into Chapter 11 protection. The company, which sells its products online and at The Vitamin Shoppe VSI -2.78%, expects to make $45 million in sales this year.
An affiliate of the U.K.-based Body Temple Ltd. has offered to pay $5 million in cash for the business, which is located—where else?—near the Jersey Shore in Lakewood. At least one other buyer put in an offer for the company, which means that the business will be put up for auction on Monday, said Gaspari Nutrition lawyer Joshua Klein.

The lead bidder plans to keep Mr. Gaspari, who owns the business, on staff. Known professionally as the “Dragon Slayer” before he retired, Mr. Gaspari was a three-time runner up for bodybuilding’s top title of Mr. Olympia and got the 2013 Arnold Schwarzenegger Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Mr. Gaspari is an integral component of the business and is the ‘face’ of the [company’s] products,” the company’s lawyers said in earlier court papers.

Court papers didn’t specifically say why the company’s sales fell, but a basic Internet search shows that the company has gotten scrutiny from U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulators over products like its testosterone booster Novadex XT. Gaspari Nutrition recently paid $130,842.36 in a class action lawsuit over the weight-loss supplement Spirodex.

Newspapers haven’t been shy about investigating the company either. (See here and here.)
Gaspari Nutrition has also fought an expensive legal battle with another ex-bodybuilder Ron Kramer, who founded competing nutritional supplement maker ThermoLife International LLC. For years, the two have sparred on internet message boards like BodyBuilding.com.
Gaspari Nutrition has paid $40,000 to ThermoLife in a patent dispute over nitric oxide-boosting products and spent more than $400,000 on lawyers for a three-year-old lawsuit against the rival. (The federal judge who handled that lawsuit said that it involved “misconduct and overlitigation” from both sides.) - By Katy Stech

Article courtesy by Wall Street Journal

When I saw this article, I couldn't believe this! This shocked me! I hope Gaspari can rise like the Phoenix and do well again. I like some of their products.