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Burda buys UK weight-loss app for £43mn

Immediate Media, the UK-based, Burda-owned specialist media company, has acquired 80.7% of the £9m-revenue/ £3mn EBITDA NutraTech, owner of Nutracheck, the country’s leading subscription weight-loss platform. The price was £43mn and Immediate has an option to acquire the remaining 19.3% of the shares after October 2024.

NutraTech was one of the UK’s first mobile diet apps when it launched in 2005. Its reputation has been built on its independence from food manufacturers and retailers. Its profitability has soared in the past few years along with the number of subscribers which are said to total 350k, paying an estimated average of £25-30 per year. It employs 25 people and will continue to be based in Nottingham and managed by the four-person team who themselves owned the business until November 1.

NutraTech’s main competitor is believed to be My Fitness Pal, of the US, which was sold to private equity in 2020.

While the company has a nascent business in the US – and Burda also has complementary health information brands in Germany – it is believed that Immediate’s priority for NutraTech is building its UK subscription base, especially among existing magazine readers.

It is four years since the £170m-revenue Immediate Media acquired BBC Good Food for £31.8m (2x revenue), which was said to make it the “largest food media publisher in the UK” – ahead of Hearst UK, publisher of Good Housekeeping. BBC Good Food is the UK’s largest food website with 14m global monthly visitors, and the best-selling food magazine, with 1m monthly readers and an average print circulation of 187k. Together with Easy Cook, and Olive, Immediate claims a food print readership of 967k and 30m monthly uniques.

Immediate also publishes the UK’s most profitable magazine – the listings weekly Radio Times – and a portfolio of print, digital and audio brands including BBC Gardeners’ World and BBC History. The company claims an all-media audience of 54m people.

The family-owned Hubert Burda Media, of Munich, owns some 500 print, digital and broadcast products in Germany, the UK and 11 other countries, and employs 10,500 people. It also has a substantial venture capital subsidiary with investments in 25 companies worldwide. Burda revenue in 2020 was €2.9bn (6% up on 2020), 58% from digital. It acquired Immediate in 2017.

Immediate Media