Nov 12, 2014

Growth Partners (“H.I.G.”), the dedicated growth capital investment affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, announced today the creation of Capstone Nutrition (“Capstone”), a new leader in nutraceutical and OTC development and manufacturing. Capstone has been created through the integration of H.I.G. portfolio companies Integrity Nutraceuticals in Spring Hill, TN and Cornerstone Research & Development in Ogden, UT. Capstone will compete as a consolidating player in the $35 billion U.S. dietary supplement market with world-class formulation, product development and production capabilities across 600,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Research, development, formulation and manufacturing services for the nutrition industry remain highly fragmented, with varying levels of quality, capability and service. “Capstone Nutrition is a new kind of partner for innovators in nutrition,” noted Capstone’s CEO Greg Horn, an experienced nutrition executive who has previously served as the CEO of both General Nutrition Centers and Garden of Life. “With deep research and development resources, a turnkey suite of services from product concept to market, and world class, purpose-built production capability in both the eastern and western United States, Capstone is a one-stop shop for the industry’s most successful product innovators. We are helping our customers bring nutrition to life.” “Capstone is dedicated to our customers’ success, and does not compete with them by having our own brands,” added Peter Miller, Capstone’s Chief Innovation Officer. “We bring significant expertise and resources every step of the way, from our research development team to our brand new formulation and flavor lab to our state-of-the-art and fully certified manufacturing services. We grow with our customers, many of whom have been with us since their founding.” “In a crowded field of smaller players, Capstone’s scale provides a competitive advantage to our customers,” noted Mike Beardall, Capstone’s President and COO. “From sourcing expertise to world class manufacturing to GMP compliance, our enterprise brings you all the advantages of working with a true leader. We have a full suite of certifications including NSF, NSF Sport, and TGA. We are qualified to produce organic, non-GMO, Halal and Kosher certified products, which helps us meet almost every customer need.” About Capstone Nutrition Capstone Nutrition is the leading pure-play, turnkey developer and manufacturer of high quality nutrition and OTC products. Capstone is a one-stop shop for innovators in nutrition, bringing to bear the consolidated resources of Integrity Nutraceuticals and Cornerstone Research and Development with state-of-the-art facilities in both Spring Hill, TN and Ogden, UT. Since 1992, Capstone companies have been conceiving, developing, producing, and packaging a wide range of capsule, tablet, powder and OTC products for a variety of customers in the United States and internationally. Capstone is well known for its exceptional quality, and maintains several industry certifications recognizing its high manufacturing standards, including NSF GMP, NSF for Sport, and Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (“TGA”) certification. For more information, please visit www.CapstoneNutrition.com . About H.I.G. Growth Partners H.I.G. Growth Partners is the dedicated growth capital investment affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity investment firm with over $17 billion of capital under management. * We seek to make both majority and minority investments in strong, growth oriented businesses located throughout North America, South America and Europe. We will invest $5 million to $30 million in equity in a given company and target investments in profitable growth oriented businesses with between $10 million and $100 million in revenues. We consider investments across all industries, but focus on certain high-growth sectors where H.I.G. has extensive in-house expertise such as technology, healthcare, internet and media, consumer products and technology-enabled financial and business services. Growth Partners strives to work closely with our management teams to serve as an experienced resource, providing broad-based strategic, operational, recruiting and financial management services from a vast in-house team and a substantial network of third-party relationships. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.HIGgrowth.com . * Based on total capital commitments to funds managed by H.I.G. Capital and its affiliates. Capstone Nutrition