Many in the dietary supplement industry have been wondering what consumer demand might look like after the market distortions caused by the global pandemic have passed. Now that COVID-19 is starting to become something that people will have to learn to live with and to some degree have become accustomed to, will consumers stop reaching as often for an immune health supplement, or other for products aimed as supporting overall wellness? Or will the supplements markets reset at a higher base level than before?
Some of Herbalife’s financial results are driven by dynamics peculiar to the network marketing channel. Nevertheless the company, with its global reach and long line of supplements and meal replacements, has become something of a bellwether for the health of the dietary supplements category as a whole.
Promising returns for entire industry
In a promising sign for the entire supplements industry, Herbalife recored strong sales in its third quarter of its fiscal 2021, Herbalife notched net sales of $1.4 billion, which was a 6% decline over the third quarter of 2020. But company officials were quick to note that those third quarter results represented a 15.5% rise over the same period in 2019.
“Uncertainty in global markets fueled by the ongoing pandemic and the Delta variant has presented challenges in predicting behavior in our channel,” Herbalife CEO John Agwunobi told stock analysts during an earnings call.
“For the quarter, the number of new distributors and preferred customers joining the business was down 19% compared to record numbers of new entrants in Q3 2020, but it was still up 28% compared to Q3 of 2019, excluding China,” he added.