SAN DIEGO -- The co-founder of Jenny Craig Inc., who built the weight loss company with his wife, Jenny, has died, the company said Tuesday.
Sid Craig died Monday in San Diego following a long illness. He was 76.
Sid and Jenny Craig founded Jenny Craig Inc. in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. The company eventually grew to include 655 weight loss centers in four countries. In 2006, Nestle SA bought the Carlsbad, California-based company for $600 million.
Sid Craig was an avid thoroughbred fan. He and Jenny Craig owned Paseana, who won the Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1992 and lost the same race by a nose in 1993. The couple purchased a 237-acre (96-hectare) horse racing stables and breeding operation in Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego, in 1995.
The couple also owns a minority partnership in the Phoenix Suns pro basketball team.
"Together, he and Jenny built the strong foundation of our company's values, culture, and mission of i mproving people's lives by helping them lose weight and keep it off," Patti Larchet, Jenny Craig's chief executive officer, wrote on the company's Web site.
Craig was born March 22, 1932, in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the mid-1950s, he worked as a part-time instructor at Arthur Murray Dance Studios and later purchased five franchises.
In the 1970s, he bought a stake in a women's salon, Body Contour Inc., and later opened other salons. It was during this period he met Jenny Guidroz Bourcq, who worked as director of operations for the salons. The two later married.
The Craigs sold their stake in Body Contour and moved to Australia where they opened the first Jenny Craig weight loss center.
Sid Craig is survived by his wife and five children. Funeral services for Craig will be private.
