WeightWatchers files bankruptcy amid weight-loss drugs disruption
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WeightWatchers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, saying it plans to slash debt and stay in business.
Why it matters: The company has been grappling with sinking sales amid the surge of weight-loss drugs and changing health habits.
Driving the news: WW International (the company's corporate name) filed the petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware Tuesday.
- "WeightWatchers remains fully operational during the reorganization process and there will be no impact to members or the plans they rely on to support their weight management goals," the company said in a statement.
Zoom in: The company said it had arranged a prepackaged restructuring deal with certain lenders to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt.
- It hopes to exit bankruptcy within 45 days or sooner.
- The firm launched a website for members that says there "will be no disruptions to your service or membership" because of the bankruptcy.
The big picture: WeightWatchers has been trying to reinvent itself for years, having shifted its emphasis to wellness in the late 2010s and then more recently embraced weight-loss drugs.
- The company in 2023 ended many of the in-person meetings it popularized decades ago as part of a broader cost-cutting plan, irking faithful members.
- Around the same time, it acquired telehealth platform Sequence, where people can get prescriptions to the popular new class of GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs.
- Then in 2024, longtime WeightWatchers investor and booster Oprah Winfrey left the company's board.
By the numbers: WeightWatchers has posted six straight full-year revenue declines and three straight nine-digit net losses.
- The company's 2024 revenue of $786 million was more than a billion less than its all-time high of $1.84 billion in 2012.
- Its losses have totaled more than $700 million over the last three years.
Zoom out: Former CEO Sima Sistani — who guided WeightWatchers to embrace weight-loss drugs and apologized for the company's past emphasis on personal responsibility — left in a sudden shakeup in September.
- Board member Tara Comonte, who previously served as president of burger chain Shake Shack, took over as interim CEO and then got the permanent job in February.
- "For more than 62 years, WeightWatchers has empowered millions of members to make informed, healthy choices, staying resilient as trends have come and gone," Comonte said Tuesday in a statement.
