Herbalife Acquires U.S. Manufacturing Facility

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF), a global nutrition and direct-selling company, announced today that it entered into a definitive agreement to buy certain assets of Micelle Laboratories, an Orange County, California contract manufacturer of food and nutritional supplements in the powder, liquid, tablet and capsule delivery forms, in order to strengthen its global manufacturing capabilities.

The Micelle facility is FDA-certified and is compliant with existing U.S. Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). The company's goal is to produce products in this facility for shipment throughout North America and several of its international markets. The facility will also enable Herbalife to enhance its global product development and supply chain to better serve its independent distributors. Herbalife anticipates investing in equipment and overall enhancements to the plant to increase capacity and capability over the next 12 months. All 72 full-time and 20 part-time staff will be offered the opportunity to become part of Herbalife upon closing, which is anticipated in the next 60 days.

"Since 2003, we've increased our R&D expenditures in order to provide our Herbalife independent distributors and their customers with the best science-based nutrition products. The next strategic step is to become more vertical in the development and manufacturing of our products which will allow us to accelerate new products to market, be more flexible to meet the unique needs of our distributors around the world and enable us to ensure our quality standards are maintained along each step of the manufacturing process, from raw ingredients to finished products in accordance with regulatory requirements," said Michael O. Johnson, chairman and CEO. "We are also pleased to welcome our new employees to Team Herbalife."

Micelle has manufactured supplements for Herbalife periodically since 1985. In the past year, Micelle has assisted in the development and has manufactured two new products recently introduced by Herbalife: mango-flavored Herbal Aloe Powder and mango-flavored Herbal Aloe Concentrate.

Micelle Laboratories was founded in 1980. The facility is located in Lake Forest, Calif.

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About Herbalife

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is a global network marketing company that sells weight-management, nutrition, and personal care products intended to support a healthy lifestyle. Herbalife products are sold in 70 countries through a network of over 1.9 million independent distributors. The company supports the Herbalife Family Foundation and its Casa Herbalife program to help bring good nutrition to children. Herbalife's Web site contains a significant amount of information about Herbalife, including financial and other information for investors at http://ir.herbalife.com. The company encourages investors to visit its Web site from time to time, as information is updated and new information is posted.

    Source: Herbalife Ltd.

Released Aug 13, 2009 • 8:03pm EDT