At a time when shedding pounds may be just a shot away, WeightWatchers is returning to its roots and its community to chart a new path forward.
Fresh off a major restructuring, the 62-year-old grand dame of weight loss is finding its footing in a market that’s more competitive than ever. Drugs like Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound help people shed up to 20 percent of their body weight in months, but offer little in the way of support when it comes to side effects, proper nutrition and insights on what to do when the shots aren’t working.
WeightWatchers — also known as WW International Inc. — is leaning into its strengths with more in-person clinics and deeper connection with members wherever they are, chief executive officer Tara Comonte said Tuesday. It’s mixing the old with the new, offering modern advances like weight-loss drugs, while emphasising the support groups that were once considered the bedrock of its program.
“Community, rather than being less important today, is just as — if not more — important than ever,” Comonte said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. That’s particularly true in the world of weight loss, she said.
Comonte took the reins in February after a few tumultuous years when the company faced existential questions about its role in a market dominated by drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. There was backlash over brand missteps, layoffs and the loss of the company’s best-known ambassador, Oprah Winfrey.
“There was a moment, perhaps an extended moment, where there was confusion around whether everything this company has been building for six decades — is that now rendered irrelevant?” Comonte said.
It all came to a head this past May, when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That led to a major restructuring that included replacing almost its entire executive board. Most recently, SoulCycle co-founder Julie Rice joined as chief experience officer to help rebuild the company’s brand and spearhead new community initiatives.
It emerged from bankruptcy in July with a healthier balance sheet, including about 70 percent less debt.
“We are extremely focused and excited about how we can continue to evolve,” Comonte said.
The company isn’t swearing off the medicines. Instead, it’s giving patients access to discounted versions of the brand name shots through the drugmakers’ cash-pay pharmacy programs. Unlike some rivals, the company will no longer offer so-called compounded drugs, the less expensive knockoff medicines allowed during supply shortages of the original GLP-1s. Those shortages have now ended.
WeightWatchers will support its “millions of members on their journey, whether they are on or off the medication,” she said. “GLP-1s are an incredible innovation and milestone, but we’re just at the beginning there. There’s a lot of exciting clinical innovation we’ll continue to see moving forward.”
After WeightWatchers began offering GLP-1 drugs in 2023, it struggled to integrate its older lifestyle programs and convince subscribers its mainstay diet and support services were still needed. Now it’s looking to the next generation of younger customers, and a move into other therapeutic areas including menopause, to provide options and opportunities for patients who may not find them anywhere else.
“As we begin to modernise this brand, it will show up in places that younger people maybe didn’t expect and make it easily accessible for them,” Rice, the chief experience officer, said in the interview.
The company still runs about 20,000 monthly support groups, most of which meet in person. But there are plans to create even more in-person opportunities — going beyond the standard WeightWatchers meeting — with the idea of attracting more younger consumers.
“I think gyms are a great place to find younger people that are working out,” Rice said. “How great would it be if I could take my favourite fitness class and then duck into a 30 minute weight health check-in afterward in that very same place?”
By Madison Muller
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