Can Weight Watchers be saved? A look at the company as it files for bankruptcy
Once the world’s most widely used dieting program, Weight Watchers’ parent company, WW International, recently entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings—here’s what could happen next.
Stepping onto the scale is set as American as eating apple pie, looking out at baseball, and visiting the drive-through at McDonald’s.
Since U.S. adult weight problems rates hold doubled since 1990 (from 21.2% in 1990 to 43.8% in 2022 for females, and 16.9% to 41.6% in 2022 for males), you’d mediate a weight-loss company like Weight Watchers may maybe be thriving.
Nonetheless when Weight Watchers’ dad or mum company, WW World (WW), declared financial rupture on May 6, 2025, it marked the pinnacle of an generation for how American citizens plunge some weight—as neatly as a large reorganization for the burden-reduction draw giant.
At its peak in 2018, Weight Watchers had a $6 billion market cap, and its stock became trading at $100 per share. In 2020, it boasted 4.4 million members.
Nonetheless digital times trade the whole lot. Which capability that of the upward push of free weight-tracking apps and web sites, as neatly as the introduction of GLP-1 medication like Ozempic and Wegovy, Weight Watchers’ membership programs, which counted calories and emphasized non-public make stronger groups, rapidly became the burden-reduction draw sphere’s dinosaur.
The May 2024 departure of movie big establish spokesperson Oprah Winfrey, who had been candid with her weight loss struggles, did further hurt.
Oprah revealed that she had misplaced 40 kilos on Weight Watchers in 2016, but relied on an unnamed weight loss drug to lose a lot more. Her announcement despatched WW shares tumbling 25%.
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