Samworth Brothers will shut down its sports nutrition arm Sci-Mx after being unable to drive the business it acquired in 2015 to profitability.

AIM-listed Supreme Imports has acquired the rights to use the brand name and £1.4m of warehouse stock as part of Samworth’s exit from the category.

A Samworth Brothers statement said the Sci-Mx business would close on 31 July following the conclusion of a recent consultation as the business “has been loss-making for several years, despite strong levels of investment and a highly committed team”.

It stated: “We have concluded that the business is not at a scale where we can make it work and the levels of investment that would be needed to achieve this do not make good economic sense.”

The Ginsters owner continues to consult with Sci-Mx staff on redeployment to other Samworth business locations.

Supreme will fund its purchase of the Sci-Mx brands and stock, for an unspecified sum, from existing cash.

It said the acquisition would add “a number of leading and long-established retail brands” to its growing sports nutrition business and enable it to leverage the Sci-Mx and Pro2Go brands to grow existing relationships with retailers and cross-sell the brands into its existing client base.

In addition, to support the ongoing strong growth in its sports nutrition segment, Supreme has secured a 52,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution facility one mile from its existing Trafford Park site.

Supreme CEO Sandy Chadha commented: “The acquisition not only broadens our product offering and delivers further scale to this segment, but also leaves us ideally placed to create additional sales traction across our extensive retail footprint in what is becoming an ever more important category for the group.”

Supreme listed on AIM earlier this year and supplies fmcg goods, including vaping products, lighting, batteries and sports nutrition and wellness goods.

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