Unilever’s subsidiary in India has invested in two vitamins and supplements manufacturers – Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is taking a 51% stake in India-based Oziva, with an option to acquire full ownership in three years based on performance criteria. The FMCG giant is also buying a 19.8% interest in Wellbeing Nutrition, otherwise trading as Nutritionalab Private.

Financial terms were not disclosed by Mumbai-based HUL, which expects to close the deals in one to three months.

Both businesses sell their wares via the direct-to-consumer channel. Oziva’s official trading name is Zywie Ventures. Founders Aarti Gill and Mihir Gadani will continue to helm Oziva, a company founded in 2016 that supplies products such as whey protein tablets, protein drinks and other plant-based supplements and vitamins.

“Over the last few years, we have created an innovative portfolio that has helped millions of consumers live a better life. As the next step in this journey, with Oziva’s focus on innovation in the space of health and wellbeing and HUL’s strong capabilities in category development and distribution, we believe we can together create a stronger purpose-led brand that brings us closer to our vision and touch more lives around the world,” Gill and Gadani said in a statement.

Founded in 2019, Wellbeing Nutrition also supplies vitamins and supplements, including its Marine collagen brand and Melts vitamins and health products. Founder and CEO Avnish Chhabria will continue to run the business.

He said: “Wellbeing Nutrition has been on a mission to make clean nutrition accessible to consumers all over the world on the back of innovative products. We believe this partnership will help scale Wellbeing Nutrition by leveraging HUL’s reach and capabilities and become a lifestyle wellness brand of choice.”

Parent company Unilever was earlier this year chasing a deal for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer healthcare business, a pursuit that drew criticism from investors and a bid that ultimately failed. Months later, CEO Alan Jope announced he would step down from his role at the end of next year.

HUL’s chief executive and managing director, Sanjiv Mehta, added that the “strategic investments” in Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition “give us an entry into the fast-growing health and wellbeing category”.

He added: “They align strongly with our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of consumers and empower people to take charge of their health through solutions that they can trust. I strongly believe that HUL is well-positioned to support further scale-up of these businesses through our R&D, market development, distribution capabilities and Unilever’s global health and wellbeing expertise.”

Unilever owns a majority stake in the publicly-listed HUL. In recent years, Unilever itself has acquired companies marketing vitamins and supplements.

Last year, the Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream maker acquired US supplements business Onnit for an undisclosed sum.

In 2020, Unilever bought bought US-based SmartyPants Vitamins. In April 2019, Unilever snapped up Olly Nutrition, a US business supplying products from vitamins to protein powders and snack bars.