What's good for the customer is good for GNC Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Centers). With more than 6,600 stores throughout the US and Canada (including about 950 franchises and some 1,710 stores within Rite Aid drugstores) as well as franchise operations in about 45 foreign markets, GNC is the leading nutritional-supplements retail chain devoted solely to items such as vitamins and dietary products.
The company also makes Rite Aid private-label products. GNC has been closing underperforming stores located in the US. GNC's online partner is drugstore.com.
In 2007 Apollo Advisors sold the firm to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Ares Management, a US private equity firm, for about $1.6 billion.