General Nutrition Center for Retail Sales

Given the indispensable relation between nutrition and health, there has always been the need for an organized scheme directed at evaluating the various food species that are commercially available. This need finally resulted in the founding of a chain of food health stores by the name Lackzoom. Lackzoom was initiated by David Shakarian in Pittsburgh in 1935. In 1960, the name Lackzoom was replaced by General Nutrition Centers (GNCs). The General Nutrition Centers have, over the years, emerged as the largest health products retailer of the world.

What They Do?

The General Nutrition Centers are concerned with the retail sale of health and nutrition related products, drugs that can be legally sold without prescription, and food supplements through their branded stores.

GNC Retail Stores

GNC retail stores usually have a large stock of various nutritional supplements, vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements, sport supplements, beauty products, weight loss products, and specialty supplements. They are named both as in-house and third party brands. Also provided are magazines, books, and tools related to health and fitness. Currently, GNC has about 5000 retail stores in the US including more than 1,300 domestic franchise locations. General Nutrition Centers also has retail stores in 41 foreign locations including the countries of Mexico and Canada.

Franchising with GNC

General Nutrition Centers continue to expand their retail sale business. For this they offer a number of incentives to dealers who plan to franchise with GNCs. They offer start-up assistance and initial financial support through direct funding and low down payment. In addition, GNCs assist in selecting the choice site for the prospective store as well as carry out lease negotiation. Committed to hip standards, GNCs affords computerized drafting and store designing along with low cost fixtures of high quality. They also offer training programs for those interested in franchising with their name. Finally, they offer essential field support.

GNC Policy

A royalty fee of 6 % of the dealer's gross sales is offered by GNCs, besides any sales tax and documented refunds. It is also possible for a qualified dealer to get franchise agreement for more than one store. The initial term for the franchise agreement is ten years. After this period, the agreement may be renewed for five more years. GNCs provide a wonderful business opportunity for retail sale dealers by providing continuing support with daily operations, purchasing services, inventory managemnt, and other matters of business. It should be remembered that GNC brand supplements, sold in the retail stores, must only be purchased from GNC.