WeightWatchers 2005 Annual Report Download - page 11

WEIGHT WATCHERS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Weight Watchers International, Inc. is a Virginia corporation with its principal executive offices in
New York, New York. In this report, unless the context indicates otherwise: ‘‘we’’, ‘‘us’’, and ‘‘our’’
refers to Weight Watchers International, Inc. and all subsidiaries consolidated for purposes of its
financial statements, including WeightWatchers.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries; ‘‘Weight Watchers
International’’ refers to Weight Watchers International, Inc. and all of its subsidiaries other than
WeightWatchers.com, Inc. and subsidiaries of WeightWatchers.com, Inc.; and ‘‘WeightWatchers.com’’
refers to WeightWatchers.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a leading global branded consumer company and the leading global provider of weight
management services, with a presence in 30 countries around the world. With over four decades of
weight management experience, expertise and know-how, we have established Weight Watchers as one
of the most recognized and trusted brand names among weight conscious consumers. In 2005,
consumers spent over $3.0 billion on Weight Watchers branded products and services, including
meetings conducted by us and our franchisees, products sold at meetings, Internet subscription products
sold by WeightWatchers.com, licensed products sold in retail channels and magazine subscriptions and
other publications.
The high awareness and credibility of our brand among all types of weight-conscious consumers—
women and men, consumers online and offline, the support-inclined and the self-help inclined—provide
us with a significant competitive advantage and growth opportunity. As the number of overweight and
obese people worldwide grows, we believe our global presence and brand awareness uniquely position
us to capture an increasing share of the global weight management market through our core meeting
business and our additional growth vehicles, such as WeightWatchers.com and our licensing efforts.
In the more than 40 years since our founding, we have built our meeting business by helping
millions of people around the world lose weight through a sensible and sustainable diet, exercise,
behavior modification and group support. Each week, approximately 1.5 million members attend
approximately 48,000 Weight Watchers meetings around the world, which are run by more than 15,000
leaders—each of whom has lost weight on our programs. We are constantly improving our scientifically
based weight management approaches, and we are the only commercial weight management program
whose efficacy has been clinically proven. Our strong brand, together with the effectiveness of our
programs, loyal customer base and unparalleled network and infrastructure, enable us to attract new
and returning members efficiently. Our customer acquisition costs remain relatively low due to both
word of mouth referrals and our efficient mass marketing programs.
Through WeightWatchers.com, we offer Internet subscription weight management products to
consumers and maintain an interactive presence on the Internet for the Weight Watchers brand. We
believe WeightWatchers.com is the leader in weight management Internet subscription products and has
twice the market share of its next largest Internet competitor. Currently, we provide two subscription
offerings: Weight Watchers Online and Weight Watchers eTools. Weight Watchers Online provides
interactive and personalized resources that allow users to follow our weight management plans via the
Internet. Weight Watchers eTools is the Internet weight management companion for Weight Watchers
meetings members who want to interactively manage the day-to-day aspects of their weight
management plans on the Internet. We currently offer these two products in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Australia/New Zealand.
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