Blackmore happy to be the Col Sanders of vitamins after $334m payday

afr.com:

Marcus Blackmore, the major shareholder of vitamins group Blackmores, says he feels “bittersweet” as he receives $11.6 million from a special dividend being paid to all shareholders on Tuesday in the first step of Kirin Corp’s $1.9 billion buyout.

Mr Blackmore, who held an 18.5 per cent stake and was integral in Kirin gaining support for its takeover approved in mid-July, will collect $334 million in total from the bid, and says he wants to help Kirin in building Blackmores into a global brand.

Marcus Blackmore will sit on the $334 million he is about to receive from Kirin in the Blackmores takeover for at least six months.  Louie Douvis

“Whether there’s a Colonel Sanders role for me, I’m buggered if I know,” he says.

He was referring to the founder and father figure of the Kentucky Fried Chicken business, Colonel Harland Sanders, whose face and white goatee beard is synonymous with the fast food brand, now shortened to KFC.

He aims to still give advice to Kirin about the business and to use his lifetime of contacts in the industry, but emphasises that he is not interested in any full-time role. But he is right behind Kirin in an expansion push as the Japanese group bolsters its own existing health science products division.

“You don’t go and spend almost $2 billion and just sit there with it”.

He has already been invited to Japan and to make a video outlining the ethos and spirit of the brand.

Mr Blackmore has also determined that he will not make any immediate major decisions about where to invest the $334 million he will receive from the buyout. The largest part of the payout to shareholders comes on August 10.

He said former Blackmores chairman Stephen Chapman and others had given him sound advice, to which he will