Nestlé sheds bulk of Jenny Craig in effort to slim down Nestlé is selling the bulk of its Jenny Craig weight loss business to a U.S. private equity firm as the world's largest food group works to trim its portfolio. Nestlé said on Thursday it was selling the Jenny Craig business in North America and Oceania to North Castle Partners for an undisclosed sum. The smaller business in France is not part of the deal, it said. Reuters reported last month that Nestlé was looking to sell Jenny Craig, which makes packaged food and runs weight loss centres, as part of a larger drive to unload weaker brands. Chief Executive Paul Bulcke also told investors last month there would be disposals, though he did not name names. "We want to be in business, not in agony," he said. Jon Cox, an analyst at brokerage Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich, called the disposal a clear positive. "It is a sign the company is carrying through with its commitment to weed out duds if they can't be turned around," Cox said. Nestlé bought Jenny Craig in 2006 for $600-million from private equity groups ACI Capital and MidOcean Partners as part of a push into nutrition that has sent the maker of KitKat and Crunch bars into baby food and sports nutrition. But several of its brands, including PowerBar energy bars, have failed to take off. Reuters reported in September that Nestlé was seeking to unload that brand as well. When Nestlé bought Jenny Craig, it had annual sales of $400-million and was achieving double-digit growth with 3,000 employees and 600 centres, according to analysts at Vontobel. "With the economic crisis, sales started to stumble," Vontobel said in a research note, in which it estimated current year sales at around 300 million Swiss francs ($329-million). The brand was loss-making and has been destroying value for years. Jenny Craig's new owner focuses exclusively on health and wellness businesses and plans to combine the brand with the Curves International fitness club chain which it bought in August 2012. North Castle said the brands will continue to operate independently and provide health, fitness and weight loss programmes to different consumer segments, though they will be overseen by the same chief executive, Monty Sharma, who runs Curves. North Castle said it expects the deal to close later this month.