Healthspan founder and chief executive Derek Coates, left, and Healthy Direct managing director Graham Winn. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0567907)

THE acquisition of Healthy Direct by Healthspan has been declared a ‘marriage of abilities’ by the managing director of each firm.

The latter bought out its Guernsey rival this week in an eight-figure deal. The combined company will now have a 60% market share of all direct sales of nutrition supplements in the UK.

Healthspan founder Derek Coates said the amalgamation would create a force to be reckoned with. ‘We are moving outsourced services, such as warehousing, IT and call centres to Guernsey in order to make savings. When you have two businesses that are similar, which is the case here, the cost-cutting potential is remarkable. By combining our marketing skills and budgets, we can also explore foreign markets more cheaply and efficiently.’

The combined sales of Healthspan and Healthy Direct nutrition supplements laid end to end would stretch 75,000 miles.