Weight Watchers revamps brand to keep momentum

Health-and-wellness company renames itself WW as it tries to build on its Oprah boost

NEW YORK — Weight Watchers is betting its future on two letters.

The health-and-wellness company is changing its name to WW, as chief executive officer Mindy Grossman tries to draw more consumers to the weight-loss program in a bid to extend the momentum fuelled by Oprah Winfrey’s embrace of the brand nearly three years ago.

Weight Watchers, which has been updating its technology and reshaping its diet plan, becomes the latest company to embrace its initials. And as Grossman puts her stamp on the brand, she’s pulling from a playbook used at Home Shopping Network, where she mounted a turnaround at the company that had switched its corporate name to HSN.

“We will go through a period where people will have to understand Weight Watchers reimagined,” Grossman said in an interview last week at WW headquarters in Manhattan.

As part of WW’s move to focus on overall health, the company is launching a program in the U.S. next month where members earn rewards including products for tracking meals, activity and weight. The WW app will be improved, and starting in January 2019, WW products sold directly to consumers will have no artificial sweeteners or preservatives.

There’s mounting pressure on Grossman to prove she can sustain the Oprah-fuelled turnaround. The company’s shares have gained nearly 60 per cent this year, after surging almost 300 per cent in 2017 as advertisements featuring the well-known media mogul helped bring customers back to the weight-loss program after a difficult stretch that saw the company’s shares sink below US$4 in 2015.

Shares of WW took a hit in August after the company posted second-quarter results, causing a 15 per cent sell-off the next day. While WW reported profit that topped estimates, the full-year guidance and subscriber forecast drew concern from SunTrust analyst Michael Swartz.

Grossman stands proudly behind the quarter’s results, noting the number of subscribers increased by one million from the year-ago period. “I think its ultimately educating people that, yeah, we have growth, but there is some cyclicality to the business,” she said.

Winfrey took a stake in the company and agreed to pitch the brand in October 2015, sending the shares flying. At the time, Weight Watchers was heavily in debt.