Founder Klee Irwin is back to whip Omni Nutraceuticals into fighting shape.

Irwin is returning as chief executive and president nearly a year after relinquishing management of the firm he formed by merging his Irwin Naturals with Colorado-based 4Health.

“We had a hired gun, and he failed,” said Irwin, who returned at the request of Omni’s board after the company’s stock price had been tumbling for months.

He plans to steer the Culver City-based vitamin company back to profitability by carving out an e-commerce niche and expanding its product line through strategic acquisitions.

Omni Nutraceuticals now sells several brands of vitamins, herbal supplements and nutrition bars to health food stores and mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart. Its Internet subsidiary, Healthzone.com, sells Omni brands and other products directly to online consumers.

“We’re going to refocus our business toward the tech aspect,” said Irwin, who plans to grow the Web site by buying out poorly performing vitamin dot-com retailers and aggregating their brands on the Healthzone site.

He plans a similar acquisition strategy for Omni’s offline branded product line and wants to expand through leveraged buyouts of smaller firms that dominate certain markets, like diet products. “We’ve got everything in place to manage multiple brands,” he said.

Irwin also has retained an investment banking firm to lighten the company’s debt load via an eight-figure equity placement. He has already cut $4.5 million from the advertising budget and what he called “bloated” executive salaries. Some employees have been laid off while others will now be compensated with stock options.

“The company is cash-flow positive,” he said. “Now that I’m back, we have all the tools to grow rapidly through acquisitions.”

Irwin continues to run Aromavera, the aromatherapy firm he acquired during his one-year hiatus from Omni Nutraceuticals.