After pricing above the range, Vitamin Shoppe traded up in its IPO debut on Wednesday. A leading specialty retailer and direct marketer of nutritional supplements, the company raised $155 million by offering 9.1 million shares at $17 each, above the $14-$16 range, on Tuesday. JPMorgan, BofA Merrill Lynch and Barclays were the bookrunners on the deal. The stock was up over 15% in early trading on the NYSE.
Founded in 1977 as a single store in New York City, Vitamin Shoppe is now the second-largest retailer of vitamins, supplements and other health and wellness products in the US with 434 stores in 37 states. The company initially filed for an IPO almost two and a half years ago, before the IPO market virtually shut down for consumer-oriented companies in early 2008. It is the first traditional retailer to go public in the US since agricultural/construction equipment provider Titan Machinery (TITN) did so in December 2007.
