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Bayer shutters its personalised supplement business Care/Of

Care/of was once heralded as a next-generation supplement brand but, as the category expanded, it failed to keep up with increased competition – leading to Bayer’s recent decision to end operations.

The company had signaled that it was planning to make staff layoffs back in April of this year due to funding shortages, taking the final decision to layoff all of its 143 staff last month.

The company posted a memo to its website confirming the closure, which has since been shut down, stating that the business was no longer accepting new orders and is cancelling all subscriptions.

Hint at a possible return for Care/of

“We are actively exploring options for the brand but do not have anything definitive to communicate at this time. We hope to be in a place to share more soon,” the company stated in the memo.

Although there has been no subsequent update, the memo did hint at the possibility that new funding could lead to a future revival of the business.

Established in 2016 by Craig Elbert and Akash Shah, when the market for personalised nutrition and supplements was still relatively underdeveloped, the company was bought out by Bayer in 2020. The move pointed to significant investment and growth potential, given it was partnering with such a huge multinational life science business.

Closure was a result of lost funding

The April disclosure stated ‘funding loss’ as the reason for the closure. Bayer has expressed its intention to continue to invest in its growing number of personal healthcare brands, which in the nutrition area now include Berocca and Redoxon, but its decision to pull funding on Care/of marks its exit from personalised supplements.

The US market for personalised nutrition and supplements has continued to expand at a category-leading rate. According to Vision Research Reports, the category was valued at $4.6 billion and is forecast to grow at a rate of 16.3% CAGR, which would put it a value of almost $21 billion by 2033.

So why did Care/of not manage to carve out its position in the market and line itself up for further growth, given the strong market conditions?

Bayer’s short-lived foray into personalised supplements

When Bayer bought its majority stake in Care/of back in November 2020, the company said the investment aimed to strengthen its position in the high-growth area of personalised nutrition.

The timing of the deal coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for nutritional supplements sky-rocketed as people sought to boost their immune systems and overall health. However, after pandemic ended, demand for supplements dipped, leading to more challenging market conditions.

The category also saw the strengthening of a number of key players, including HUM Nutrition, which provides personalised supplements based on a customer quiz, as well as a crop of players that are focusing on tailored pre- and probiotics developed around gut health, including Viome Life Sciences.

The category has also seen some investments from major multinationals, including IFF’s 2022 partnership with Salus Optima and Nestle’s 2020 acquisition of Living Matrix.

Bayer: In the midst of ‘massive restructuring’

While Bayer is certainly a heavyweight, with a 2023 turnover in excess of €51 billion, it has been facing tough times brought on by its ill-fated takeover of Monsanto in 2016, which saddled the company with significant debts after a series of litigations related to the pesticide Roundup.

The end to Bayer’s funding of the Care/of business coincided with another huge round of restructuring for the life science giant, announced in January of this year. The announcement forms part of plans to scale back investments, reduce the management hierarchy, and eliminate bureaucracy.

“Bayer is currently in a difficult situation for various reasons. In order to make rapid, sustainable improvements to our operational performance and our room to maneuver, far-reaching measures are necessary. We want to get Bayer back on the road to success quickly,” said Heike Prinz, labour director of Bayer, when the cutback were announced.