- In the beginning of the year, the low carb craze was going crazy. Everybody wanted to be on it; everybody wanted to have a piece of it; everybody was thinking or was bringing out a product with some form of a low carb theory on it. Well, it appears that consumers are not too keen on everything out there. Now, you can go to any grocery store, and see lots of 'low carb items', from orange juice, to pancakes, to ice cream, to dozen of different bars, and with this comes increased competition.
Atkins, the company who brought it into the mainstream, plans to cut a number of employees, as many as 75 or more, from the 370 that work around the country with them. There is one reason for this; declining sales, and as we hear from some sports nutrition stores out there, that many low carb products are not moving well at all this summer.
Pity the private equity firms have invested in Atkins late last year, Parthenon Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, that purchased 80% for $533 million. We are not so sure they will see the investment come to blossom.
However, is the low carb craze over with? Depends how you look at it? True, there are many more low carb buyers this year than ever, but the growth has definately slowed. The problem is, how will all of these low carb companies get their products to the consumers, when in early 2003, we only had 50 products to choose from, and now, we have 500+ products.THey won't, and like Atkins is realizing, many products will simply not be around in 2005.
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