GNC (company)
Nutrition supplements business
GNC Holdings, LLC (General Nutrition Centers) is an American multinational retail and nutritional manufacturing company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It specializes in health and nutrition related products, including vitamins, supplements, minerals, herbs, sports nutrition, diet, and energy products. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer.
History
In 1935, David Shakarian, an Armenian-American businessman, opened a small health food store originally named Lackzoom, in downtown Pittsburgh. He made US$35 on his first day and was able to open a second store within six months. Despite initial setbacks, such as the Ohio River flooding into downtown on St. Patrick's Day that wiped out both stores in 1936, Shakarian persevered and reopened the next year. He later expanded into mail-order sales of health foods, vitamins, and prescription drugs, capitalizing on the growing interest in physical fitness and health consciousness during the 1960s.
In the 1960s, the company changed the name of its stores to General Nutrition Centers. Shakarian stepped down as chief executive officer in February 1984 but continued as chairman until his death later that year.
The public source identifies “GNC (company)” as nutrition supplements business. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around company, Nutrition and supplements.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4808595. VIAF identifies the subject as 129245451. The Library of Congress control number is n81034550. 1 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1936 and 1984.
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This entry incorporates text from “GNC (company)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.