California-based nutrition company Herbalife has agreed to purchase a manufacturing facility in Winston Salem, North Carolina for $22.2m.
The move is part of the company's plan to step up self-manufacturing of its nutritional powder and liquid products.
To ensure it is in line with US Good Manufacturing Practices for dietary supplements and food products, Herbalife plans to invest more than $100m on machinery & technology, as well as a complete retro-fitting of the existing facility.
It will employ around 500 new positions upon reaching full production and will manufacture nutritional products for the North American and other markets across the world.
Chief operating officer Rich Goudis said: "This acquisition is part of the ongoing execution of our previously stated 'seed to feed' strategy - vertically integrating our supply chain to give us even greater control of our products at every stage of the process and increasing our ability to meet the increased product needs of our independent distributors and their customers around the world."
The deal is expected to close in late December 2012, subject to the completion of due diligence on the property.
