. The year 1999 opened with GNC, General Nutrition Companies, and Rite Aid announcing the construction of a significant strategic alliance in vitamins and nutritional supplements. Outside the pharmacy, nutritional supplements are Rite Aid’s fastest growing category, and retail is the fastest growing channel for selling nutritional supplements. Rite Aid will open 1500 full-line GNC stores within Rite Aid locations across the country over a three-year period. GNC will manufacture the nutritional supplements and together they will market a new line of vitamins and nutritional supplements to be called "PharmAssure." In addition, GNC will become the exclusive manufacturer of Rite Aid’s private label vitamins and nutritional supplements and together they will construct a co-branded Internet e-commerce and nutritional information site.This strategic alliance is another step to Rite Aid becoming a broader health services company. The ability to link nutrition with the credibility of Rite Aid’s pharmacists in the growing area of e-commerce excites Rite Aid and creates an unique competitive edge that is expected to be favorably received by consumers, according to Mr. Grass, CEO. In support of this alliance, Beth Kaplan, executive vice-president of marketing at Rite Aid, says, “Americans are increasingly concerned about their long-term well-being. Our exclusive PharmAssure products and GNC ‘stores within stores’ will help Rite Aid differentiate itself from the competition while meeting the health needs of our customer base-the key to our success.”The strategic alliance with GNC and expected future success sparked Rite Aid’s expansion and reconstruction of its pharmacy division. At the beginning of the year 2000, Rite Aid announced its expansion and reconstruction of its corporate pharmacy to provide a more integrated approach to pharmacy purchasing. Mary Sammons, president and chief operatin...
