WeightWatchers 2005 Annual Report Download - page 4

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a full year behind us since the launch of TurnAround®, we
saw a return to attendance growth in North America. In
2005, worldwide company-owned meeting attendance in-
creased by over one million attendances, up 1.7% to 60.9
million, with North America witnessing attendance growth
of 3.5% to 33.5 million.
Beyond focusing on our core meetings business, in 2005 we
continued to pursue a host of promising initiatives such as in-
creasing our online presence, expanding our licensing agree-
ments, developing the corporate channel, and innovating
our product lines. Going forward, in addition to contributing
incrementally to the top-line, these revenue streams will also
increase our brand recognition and awareness among new
demographics and expand our potential customer reach.
Perhaps the most important event of 2005 was our acquisi-
tion of 100% ownership of WeightWatchers.com. Through
WeightWatchers.com, we offer Internet weight manage-
ment subscription products to consumers while maintain-
ing a worldwide online presence for the Weight Watchers
brand. The integration of this online business has gone very
smoothly and we are thrilled with its performance to date.
WeightWatchers.com generates revenues primarily from its
online subscription products, which were available during
2005 in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
and Germany. In addition, in late 2005, WeightWatchers.com
launched its products in Australia and New Zealand and is
constantly evaluating other market opportunities.
As a result of its efforts, WeightWatchers.com is the clear
market leader in online weight management subscription
products, with a market share that is twice its next largest
Internet competitor. Moreover, WeightWatchers.com grew
its subscriber base to approximately 535,000 active subscrib-
ers as of the end of 2005, from 105,000 at the end of 2001,
resulting in a record $109.7 million in revenue in 2005 and
continuously improving profi tability.
In addition to being the gateway to our online subscription
products, the Weight Watchers Web site is an important
global promotional channel for our businesses and contrib-
utes signifi cantly to our meetings business by promoting our
brand, advertising Weight Watchers meetings, and keeping
members involved with the latest from Weight Watchers. In
an average month during 2005, our Web site had 4 million
unique visitors and 161 million page views in the U.S. alone.
Compared to the other online weight management Web
sites, people who come to WeightWatchers.com tend to
stay longer and become more engaged, a testament to our
focus on providing customers the best experience possible.
Also in 2005, we took steps to improve our range of prod-
ucts that complement our approach to weight management
and help our members and subscribers in their weight man-
agement efforts. We introduced new fl avors of our popular
Just2POINTS!TM snack bars, added several terrifi c new cook-
books, and rolled out a line of savory snacks. We are now
seeing the benefi ts from our enhancements, with product
sales per meeting attendee up 5% to $3.88. In December,
we launched our online store in the United States, which
now gives our Weight Watchers Online subscribers access to
a range of our best products.
We also continued to drive our licensing business in 2005.
This activity has grown tremendously in the past two years,
and most importantly, incremental licensing revenues are
almost completely accretive to the bottom line. Given the
credibility we have built over the past four decades, it’s no
surprise that our brand resonates with consumers. For in-
stance, our snacks, cakes and muffi n licensee, Dawn Foods,
generated product sales that exceeded expectations at every
retailer where they placed our products.
Through our sales and marketing initiative, Corporate So-
lutions, Weight Watchers is starting to make signifi cant
in-roads with companies who want to offer – and in some
cases want to subsidize – our services and products for their