Weightwatchers takes strategic measures and shelters from its creditors to eliminate $ 1.15 billion in debt. She hopes to achieve growth and better profitability in the years to come.
The company, now known as WW International, made Tuesday a request for protection against its creditors under chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy law.
During the restructuring procedure it undertakes, its debt, which borders $ 1.6 billion, will be largely eliminated and WW International will become A company listed on the stock market within forty days
provides the company. The activities of its members will continue normally, she said, in a statement.
The decisive measures that we take today, with the massive support of our lenders and our creditors, will give us the flexibility necessary to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members and direct with authority
said the CEO of the company, Tara Comonte.
WW International said the restructuring plan would eliminate a debt of $ 1.15 billion from the company’s balance sheet.
Income that melt in sight
The weight loss industry has been transformed in recent years by the arrival of weight loss drug options like Ozempic, Wegovy and Novo Nordisk, to name only them.
WW International has gone through difficult times after the failure of the recovery plan for its former CEOSima Sistani, who was forced to leave his post in September 2024.
In 2023, the company bought a remote party supplier in order to start providing drug loss. Despite this effort, WW International reported a loss of $ 345.7 million last year, while its subscription income lost 5.6 % over a year.
Open in full screen
Weightwatchers’ actions had nevertheless skyrocketed when the company announced that it was embarking on the sale of prescription drugs for weight loss. (Archives photo)
Photo : Associated Press / Richard Drew
-In February, the company revealed a 12 % drop in the number of its members. Tara Comonte had then claimed that the $ 100 million in her debt constituted A permanent and important burden
.
WW International suffered another blow last year when Oprah Winfrey announced that she was leaving her board of directors after held this position for almost a decade.
The former host has long awarded the program the merit of having helped her lose 40 lb (18 kilos) in 2016, but later revealed that she also used a weight loss medication to lose more.
Focus on general well-being
The company was founded in 1963 by Jean Nidetch, a overweight housewife obsessed with cookies
who had tired of fashionable diets and pills.
True to his philosophy – It is the choice, and not chance, which determines your destiny
-, Jean Nidetch lost more than 70 lb (31.75 kilos) and did not take them back.
Open in full screen
A meeting of the Weightwatchers weight loss program in Great Britain in 1968.
Photo : Getty Images / Powell
WeightWatchers So gradually started as a weekly support group for weight loss with some participants and has turned into a global phenomenon with millions of members around the world.
The company’s shares have dropped 60 % since the Wall Street Journal reported for the first time in April that the company was preparing to take shelter from its creditors.
With information from Reuters and CNN
