Healthy living retailer Holland & Barrett has been bought by a Russian billionaire's firm.

L1 Retail, the retail investment arm of LetterOne, backed by Mikhail Fridman, has agreed to purchase the chain for £1.77bn from its owners Nature’s Bounty, which is backed by private equitey firm The Carlyle Group.

Holland & Barrett has Cumbrian branches in Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal, Keswick, Penrith and Workington.

It is headquartered in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, and has stores in 1,150 locations worldwide and more than 4,200 associates and staff.

L1 Retail managing partner Stephan DuCharme said: “Holland & Barrett is a clear market leader in the UK health and wellness retail market, with attractive growth positions in other European and international markets, and growing online presence, with a leading customer loyalty programme and 10m active cardholders.

"We look forward to working with Peter Aldis, chief executive of Holland & Barrett, and his strong management team. We believe that the company is well positioned to benefit from structural growth in the growing £10bn health and wellness market and has multiple levers for long term growth and value creation.”

Mr Alsis added: "We are delighted to now be in partnership with the L1 Retail team and its advisory board of internationally-renowned retailers. We have upgraded much of our core store portfolio to concept stores to deliver additional in-store theatre and increased customer engagement.

"New products launched through our ethical sourcing programme have also been a key growth driver helping to underpin our substantial investment to gain presence across an increasingly global Health and Wellness market."