GOLI Nutrition announced in mid-March that it would be acquired by a collection of investors that includes its Mexico distributor, a private equity firm, and one of the company's original founders. More interestingly, the transaction, which has the full support of the company's lenders, is part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy process in Canada. Wait…what? You mean the company that introduced the world to apple cider vinegar gummy supplements just filed for bankruptcy? Weren’t they doing like a half-billion in revenue just a few years ago? Regardless of today’s bankruptcy process reality, that climb from nothing to $502 million in net sales within basically 26 short months is insanity. Yet, some supplement brands are like shooting stars. They burst through the industry in this spectacular arc, but they don't stay long. They just leave a trail of lessons we can learn. Mentioned in the bankruptcy documents was the fact that GOLI Nutrition sustained significant losses to the tune of $100 million since March 2022. Furthermore, GOLI Nutrition management outlined a collection of reasons they believed attributed to those significant losses. So, I'll put on my professor outfit and extract some insightful lessons those stated reasons, but also add some of my own opinions around the fall of GOLI Nutrition that could be helpful to supplement industry stakeholders. Some of those lessons include...how GOLI Nutrition supported this type of massive sales growth (along with some details on the Better Nutritionals contract manufacturing bankruptcy and court documents). Also, the market timing elements that helped GOLI Nutrition, but also subsequently caused liquidity constraints. Moreover, I talk about the apple cider vinegar supplement trend that created massive competitive risk for GOLI Nutrition...from third-party brands but also the same large retailers they had vendor relationships that created private label offerings. This leads into my discussion around the lack of strategic narrative at GOLI Nutrition that led them to being simply a product company. Finally, the “Mo Money, Mo Problems” lesson that any CPG entrepreneur should take to heart and that's you must have financial buffers in place for legal matters…whether that’s protecting intellectual property, guarding your hero product name from the godfather of apple cider vinegar CPG, or ensuring opportunistic class action lawyers or competitors don’t take you down. Can the new ownership unlock new growth opportunities? In 2023, GOLI Nutrition did around $119 million in net revenue…but lost close to $63 million. The business consortium acquiring GOLI Nutrition seems to think they can “launch their way out of this mess” and I disagree with this strategic approach. GOLI Nutrition needs financial discipline first and foremost. That means walking back a lot of sales, marketing, and product moves that just don’t make sense anymore. In doing so, GOLI Nutrition will almost certainly drop further from a top-line revenue perspective over the next few years. After that…who knows (and I do hope they achieve business growth again), but I’d be focusing more right now on surviving over thriving.

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