Company History

Within February of 1980, Mark Hughes began selling the original Herbalife weight loss product from either a trunk of his car. By 1982, Herbalife had reached $2,000,000 around sales & opened the distributorship inside Canada, its number 1 outside of the United States. Around 1986 Herbalife became a publicly traded company via NASDAQ. Independent distributors' individual vehicles can be seen on a street, decorated by decals bearing the mysterious catchword "Lose weight now, ask me how!" Withinside 1996 Herbalife reached $1,000,000,000 in annual sales. Around 2000, Hughes died at the age of 44 from either an adverse reaction to an accidental mix of alcohol & guide sleeping pills. A company has continued to develop when his dying.

Around 2003, Michael O. Johnson joined Herbalife when CEO when A result a Xvii-month career by having The Walt Disney Company, last as president of Walt Disney International. He is the company's third CEO since a disastrous overdose of its founder, Mark Hughes. In December 16 2004 the company experienced an initial public offering on the NYSE of 14,500,00Commons shares at $14/share. 2004 nett sales were reported when $1.Three billion. Inside April 2005, the company celebrated its Twenty-fifth day of remembrance by using a quatern-day event attended by 35,000 Herbalife Independent Distributors from either around the world. Around August 2005, Dr. Steve Henig joined a company when Main Scientific Officer, responsible product the food & drug administration and development.

Herbalife's Scientific Advisory Board is chaired by David Heber, M.D. Ph.D, F.The.C.P., F.The.C.North., world health organization is prof of medicine & public health & a initiation director of the Center for Person Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at UCLA. Based on datthe from a [http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2004/1004/116.html 2004 Forbes article], Dr. Heber joined the board at about a equivalent period Herbalife mass produced a $3 million donation to the Center for Man Nutrition.

A company operates around Lx countries & has 2,500 employees & claims to develop further than of these million independent distributors.

Product Overview

When of 2005, these are non immediately clear what method Herbalife's weight loss products employ, as an actual nutritional breakdown of the products is not made publicly available. Recent advertisements indicate that the current philosophy is one of meal replacement via diet shakes, which is to all appearances not unlike the SlimFast diet. Proponents claim that the Herbalife strategy is aligned with health industry recommendations for safe weight control, eating a balanced diet, low in calories and taking regular exercise, and that their nutritional and weight management line of products facilitate this through macronutrient and micronutrient food formulas. Herbalife provides testimonials from health professionals as part of their marketing campaign.

Some of the original Herbalife weight loss products contained the active ingredient Ma Huang, an herb containing ephedrine. Herbalife stopped using ephedrine in its products after 1998 when the FDA linked one of their products (Original Green) to the cardiac arrest of a 28 year old woman.

Controversy Over Business Methods

Supporters and merchants involved with Herbalife contend that it is a genuine and profitable multi-level marketing business opportunity. [http://www.cockeyed.com/workfromhome/workfromhome.html Critics of Herbalife contend] that it operates much like a Ponzi scheme and that the company does not make enough effort to curb abuses by individual distributors.