Tesco pays £3m to control natural remedies specialist

Tesco, the UK's biggest food retailer, yesterday spent £2.9m on buying a controlling stake in The Nutri Centre, a specialist in complementary medicines.

The move, which gives it a 50.1 per cent stake in the Regent's Park-based business, is the first major investment by a UK food retailer into the complementary medicines market.

A spokesman for Tesco said the company wanted to benefit from the expected "huge boom in organics" as more people turned to "a natural lifestyle".

Yesterday 85 of The Nutri Centre's 22,000 most popular products went on sale in 50 Tesco stores. Those 85 products, which include organic style ranges of multivitamins, cod liver oil and garlic supplements, will eventually be sold in more than 200 Tesco stores.

The full range of The Nutri Centre's products will, however, only be available through a mail-order catalogue and via that company's own website, although Tesco plans to offer the goods on its own website as well.

Rohit Mehta, The Nutri Centre's founder and owner, becomes Tesco's "healthy living consultant" and will continue to manage the business on a day-to-day basis. The Nutri Centre has just one shop located below The Hale Clinic, a practice dedicated to combining conventional and complementary medicines. Both are said to have been frequented by the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Tesco said the complementary medicines market is predicted to be worth more than £300m in the UK by 2003, having more than doubled in the past five years. It said British customers spend significantly less on such products than their American and European counterparts.

Tim Mason, Tesco's marketing director, said: "Customers tell us they want to live a healthier lifestyle so demand for natural products is booming. Our link with The Nutri Centre will give customers access to an exciting range of complementary medicine."