Natural Organics to Shed Its Vitamin Chain, Merge

Natural Organics Inc. said Tuesday that it will change its name and business by shedding its Great Earth retail vitamin chain and merging with a home-entertainment company based in Wilmington.

Los Angeles-based Natural Organics said its directors had previously approved a plan to execute the spinoff by distributing to its shareholders all the stock of N. Org Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary that operates the vitamin store business, on a share-for-share basis.

Subject to Approval

The spinoff, which is subject to approval by Natural Organics shareholders and is scheduled to be completed early next year, comes two years after the vitamin chain was merged with Microsonics Inc., a Los Angeles-based electronics firm controlled by sports and motion picture financier Sam Schulman.

Bernard Bubman, president of the vitamin unit, explained that the electronics and vitamin mix had not been a success.

“The merger did not benefit each company because they were involved in such varied industries,” he said.

The vitamin retail chain, which has annual sales of about $8 million, operates 22 stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Natural Organics also said it reached an agreement to merge with privately held International Home Video, which specializes in acquiring U.S. rights to home videocassettes of foreign-language films and animated features.

To date, all sales of prerecorded cassettes have been in the Spanish language under the Video Latino logo.

Shares to Be Issued

Under terms of the agreement, Natural Organics will issue shares to International Home Video shareholders, who will then own 82% of the approximately 4.6 million shares in the merged company.

With the spinoff, N. Org Inc. will assume its former parent company’s name, becoming Natural Organics, while the parent firm will change its name to IHV Corp.

Irving Katzef, currently chairman and chief executive of International Home Video, and Russell Green, president, will assume those posts at the new IHV.