NBTY acquires Balance Bar company

Supplements and vitamin maker NBTY Inc. has acquired the Balance Bar Co. for $78 million from private equity firm Brynwood Partners, the companies announced Monday.

NBTY, which is based in Ronkonkoma, will finance the purchase with a revolving line of credit, according to an SEC filing from the company. Balance Bar is a maker of nutritional energy bars and based in Valhalla, N.Y.

"Balance Bar is a good strategic fit within our existing portfolio of sports nutritional bars… and that was the reason why we made the acquisition," said Andrea Staub, a spokeswoman for NBTY.

In October, NBTY opened a new facility in Amityville to make sports and nutritional bars. The 66,000 square-foot plant can produce one million bars a day and was built with $750,000 in state aid. Current brand name bars under the company include Pure Protein, Good ‘n Natural Bars and Met-Rx.

NBTY is owned by private equity firm The Carlyle Group. The company was publicly traded until it was bought in 2010; it employs about 2,600 people on Long Island.

Photo: Babylon Town Supervisor Richard Schaffer, third from left, stops near the production line during a tour in October of NBTY's new 66,000 square foot nutritional bar manufacturing plant in Amityville. (Oct. 24, 2012)