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Is The Vitamin Shoppe Owned by Private Equity?

Yes — The Vitamin Shoppe is owned by Kingswood Capital Management, which acquired it in 2025.

PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED

The Vitamin Shoppe

Includes Vitamin Shoppe

health supplements · Secaucus, NJ

PE Firm
Kingswood Capital Management
Acquirer
Kingswood Capital Management / Performance Investment Partners
Year Acquired
2025

Vitamin Shoppe outlived the private-equity parent that imploded into a $2 billion bankruptcy, then got scooped up by two new PE firms.

What They Did

  1. Vitamin Shoppe's parent company Franchise Group filed Chapter 11 in November 2024 with $2 billion in debt after a PE-backed management buyout went sideways
  2. CEO Brian Kahn resigned in January 2024 under SEC investigation. Federal prosecutors later charged him with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and in December 2025 he pleaded guilty to secretly running Prophecy Asset Management, a hedge fund that collapsed in 2020 with hundreds of millions in hidden losses
  3. Kingswood Capital and Performance Investment Partners bought Vitamin Shoppe out of the wreckage for $193.5 million in May 2025
  4. Fellow Franchise Group brand American Freight was liquidated entirely — Vitamin Shoppe survived, but its PE parent did not

Since the Acquisition

  • If you shop at Vitamin Shoppe, you probably never noticed the corporate parent collapse into bankruptcy, even as more than 650 stores stayed open.
  • You are still buying from a PE-owned chain. Vitamin Shoppe just swapped one failed private-equity parent for two new firms.

Sources

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What people ask

Is The Vitamin Shoppe owned by private equity?

Yes. The Vitamin Shoppe is currently owned by Kingswood Capital Management, which acquired it in 2025. Vitamin Shoppe outlived the private-equity parent that imploded into a $2 billion bankruptcy, then got scooped up by two new PE firms.

What happened to The Vitamin Shoppe after the acquisition?

If you shop at Vitamin Shoppe, you probably never noticed the corporate parent collapse into bankruptcy, even as more than 650 stores stayed open. You are still buying from a PE-owned chain. Vitamin Shoppe just swapped one failed private-equity parent for two new firms.

Who owns The Vitamin Shoppe?

The Vitamin Shoppe is owned by Kingswood Capital Management, which acquired it in 2025.

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