Weightwatchers, a 62-year-old health and well-being company that faced strong competition from new drugs and weight loss programs, has filed for bankruptcy in order to reduce her debt by more than a billion dollars while she widens her TV company.
At its peak, weight spells have shaped how millions of people in the United States and beyond ate and exercised. Oprah Winfrey was once a spokesperson and a member of the board of directors.
But the company has struggled to keep its customers while people turn to weight loss drugs, fitness applications and influencers on social networks.
As part of a bankruptcy plan filed in Delaware, weight tests will be taken up by a group of investors, according to the file. The existing shareholders will keep a participation of 9% once the process is completed in about 45 days, and the company will continue to operate.
The changes “will give us flexibility to accelerate innovation, to reinvest in our members and to direct with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape,” said Tara Comonte, director general of Weightwatchers, in a statement.
Weightwatchers was founded in New York by Jean Nidetch, an entrepreneur who had lost 72 pounds by joining a strict diet with the support of his friends. She charged the fees to the diet to attend periodic meetings, where they were encouraged to keep track of what they ate and motivate each other.
The company has evolved by adding an exercise regime and a punctual system which quantified the appropriate food parts. Now he offers weight loss programs and fitness coaching on his mobile application and website.
In 2022, the company paid a penalty of $ 1.5 million as part of a regulation after the Federal Trade Commission said that its weight loss application for children had illegally collected personal information from minors. Pediatricians have criticized the application, warning that children’s weight loss programs could cause diet.
The company has also been faced with winds -contrary winds in recent years, the increase in demand from Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and other drugs that help people lose weight by removing appetite.
Weightwatchers renamed WW International in 2018 as part of an effort to expand its objective beyond weight loss. In 2023, he acquired a sequence, a tele-health platform based on the subscription, and began to offer weight loss drugs.
The latest company’s profits report showed Tuesday that its income from its clinical activities, including prescription drugs, increased by 57% in annual shift. But his first quarter income had decreased by 10%.
The coronavirus pandemic led to a significant drop in people who attended weight weight meetings in person, which prompted the company to reduce the number of meetings it has offered.
Weightwatchers also lost one of her most important spokespersons Ms. Winfrey.
She joined her board of directors in 2015 and credited Weightwatchers to help her lose 40 pounds. But last year, months after announcing that it was taking a weight loss medication, the company said it was leaving.
Months later, the actions of Weightwatchers, which had climbed to around $ 100 in 2018, became a Penny stock. They closed at 79 cents on Tuesday.
