The story
The company was founded in 1987 by Marc Coucke and Yvan Vindevogel, both former pharmacy students at the Ghent University. They each had a 50% share in the company. Their first product was a shampoo in 5 liter bottles which they sold to pharmacists who then added a customised scent and colour to sell the product as a homemade brand. In 1989 they started selling Uvesol tanning lotions. In 1994 Yvan Vindevogel sold his shares to Marc Coucke.
in 1998 was the company's initial public offering (IPO). Omega Pharmaa was initially listed as a Naamloze vennootschap on the Euronext Brussels and used to be part of the BEL20 index until late 2011 when Coucke (through his investment company Couckinvest) and private equity firm Waterland took the company private once again. Omega Pharma was officially acquired by Perrigo with effect from 31 March 2015. The company is now part of the Branded Consumer Healthcare division within Perrigo.
Between 2012 and 2014, Omega Pharma, together with Quick Step, was a corporate sponsor of the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step UCI World Tour cycling team.
From Wikipedia’s article on Omega Pharma, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5