Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Tide and Charmin, expects to finish buying Summerville supplement maker Thorne before the end of the year. The price is $3.8 billion in cash.

That is more than five times the $680 million that private equity firm L Catterton paid to take Thorne private in 2023, according to the Post and Courier.

Thorne announced the definitive agreement on Aug. 4 without disclosing a price. P&G Chief Executive Shailesh Jejurikar revealed the $3.8 billion figure in a CNBC interview the same day, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.

P&G confirmed the price in its annual report for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The company said it expects the deal to close in the second quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, which runs from October through December, with the timing subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. As of mid-October, neither company had announced that the sale had closed.

What P&G is buying

Thorne, founded in 1984, sells about 250 products and expects about $650 million in sales this year, the Post and Courier reported. That would be up from about $500 million in 2025 and $229 million in 2022, according to figures CNBC reported in April and the newspaper cited.

Its products range from creatine to prenatal vitamins, Investing.com reported. Thorne says it makes them at its own facility in South Carolina and is trusted by more than 100 professional sports teams and more than 7 million consumers. It also offers Taia, which it describes as an AI-powered wellness advisor.

P&G already sells Metamucil, New Chapter vitamins and Align probiotics, Reuters reported. The Cincinnati company reported net sales of $87 billion in its latest fiscal year.

“Consumer interest in self-care, prevention, wellness, and personalized health continues to grow, and Thorne strengthens our position in premium wellness with a trusted, science-backed brand that complements our existing portfolio,” Paul Gama, CEO of P&G Health Care, said in Thorne’s announcement.

Why that price

Jejurikar told CNBC that “the price is a good price for the growth rates they have,” the Post and Courier reported. He pointed to P&G’s 2017 purchase of the personal care brand Native as an example. “When we bought it, it was hardly $40 million in sales,” he said, adding that P&G has taken it close to $1 billion, according to the newspaper.

P&G was not the only suitor. The Financial Times reported that Unilever was exploring a $4 billion valuation for Thorne, and Reuters named Haleon, the maker of Advil and Centrum, as another possible bidder, the Post and Courier reported in July. Jejurikar declined to say whether P&G won a bidding war, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported that L Catterton’s return on Thorne would exceed $3 billion. Perella Weinberg was Thorne’s lead financial adviser, according to the announcement.

“We believe P&G is the right partner to help us expand our impact while staying true to the values and standards that have always defined Thorne,” Thorne CEO Colin Watts said in the announcement.

What it means in Summerville

Thorne started near Seattle in the mid-1980s and later moved to rural northern Idaho, the Post and Courier reported. After outgrowing its headquarters and factory there, it moved most of its key operations to Omni Boulevard in Berkeley County’s part of Summerville.

The S.C. Department of Commerce announced that move in November 2016, describing a $35 million headquarters and manufacturing plant at 620 Omni Industrial Blvd. that would create 330 jobs. Gov. Henry McMaster attended the groundbreaking in September 2017.

The company has kept growing there. During the pandemic it added a 360,320-square-foot warehouse in the Omni Industrial Campus off Interstate 26, and its payroll now tops 800 workers, the Post and Courier reported.

Thorne’s announcement named Summerville only in its dateline, and P&G’s post about the deal did not mention the city or the plant. Neither addressed the Summerville workforce. Jejurikar called Thorne “a really well-run operation,” according to the Post and Courier.

A company that has changed hands before

Thorne went public on the Nasdaq as Thorne HealthTech in 2021 and gave up the listing about two years later, when L Catterton bought it, the Post and Courier reported. L Catterton, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, is backed by the French luxury goods group LVMH, according to the newspaper.

Watts, who led The Vitamin Shoppe from 2015 to 2018, runs Thorne. He told CNBC earlier this year that “this is going to be a billion-dollar brand over the next few years,” the Post and Courier reported.

If the closing stays on P&G’s schedule, that goal will pass before year-end to a company that says it has operations in about 70 countries.