Weight-loss company Jenny Craig Inc., which is majority owned by private equity firms ACI Capital Co. and MidOcean Capital Partners Inc., said Thursday it had hired Goldman Sachs to look at its options, including a possible sale.
The move comes after a year of Jenny Craig being splashed across the pages of celebrity magazines internationally with actress Kirstie Alley on its weight-loss program.
Alley, who starred in the television series 'Fat Actress' before going on the diet, started off tipping the scales at 219 pounds but has lost 60 pounds so far, said a a spokesman for Jenny Craig.
The California-based company said in a statement it was experiencing "extraordinary growth and revitalization" and wanted to look at its alternatives to expand its customer base.
"We are looking to grow the company," said a Jenny Craig spokeswoman.
The company's recent sales figures were not available.
Jenny Craig was founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1983 by weight-loss guru Jenny Craig and her husband Sid as a weight management company offering dieters specially prepared meals as well as exercise programs. It expanded to the United States two years later.
The spokeswoman said the company went public in 1991 valued at $578 million.
But in 2002 Jenny Craig was taken private by ACI Capital and MidOcean Capital, formerly DB Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Deutsche Bank AG, in a deal valued at about $115 million.
Jenny and Sid Craig retain a 20 percent stake of the company.
Jenny Craig employs about 3,000 people and has about 650 company-owned and franchised centers in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Its Web site says there are 120,000 people following the Jenny Craig program each week
No one at ACI or MidOcean were immediately available to comment.
