OpTree

If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, you have one more incentive to get in shape for the summer…..Ralph and Cathy Oats, founders of Wellness International Network, Ltd, have announced the “Summer Shape Up” Weight Loss competition for those in the DFW area. The winner of the competition will receive a makeover, a photo shoot and a $500 shopping spree. Not a bad incentive to lose a few pounds before bathing suit season.

Wellness International has been committed to health and nutrition for over 15 years. The company is well known for their WinOmega3complex supplement as well as their BioLean Weight Loss programs.

Participants in the competition must lose at least 25 lbs to be eligible for the prize. The competition will continue for the next four months. WIN, in their commitment to helping participants lose weight, is providing free products to aid in weight loss and will help those in the competition keep track of their progress.

Wellness International will be keeping track of all of the participants as the summer goes on. This should be a great marketing campaign for them. As we’ve seen with shows like NBC’s the Biggest Loser, people like to see others achieving weight loss goals and love to follow along with them for motivation. Weight loss is a huge issue in this country and obesity is problem that many struggle with. Consumers spend thousands of dollars on products that they think will help shed pounds. If consumers see that WIN products are helping others achieve their weight loss goals, they will be eager to buy and try for themselves. It will be interesting to see how successful this campaign is and whether or not the company will try similar competitions in other cities.

Popularity: 2% [?]

As the weather warms up across the country, the top wakeboarders in the world are preparing for a new season of competition. The 2008 Lineup, and sponsors of the tour have just been released by World Sports and Marketing, organizer of the MasterCraft Pro Wakeboard Tour. Among the list of sponsors, is network marketing company MonaVie - whose popular Acai berry drink has been everywhere lately.

MonaVie will be one of the premier tour sponsors, which will make stops in Georgia, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona and Nevada and be televised on fox affiliate network, FUEL TV.

The MonaVie Acai based drink is very popular in the athletic world. Athletes form every major sport tout the product as being a beneficial part of their daily workout regimen. This is MonaVie’s first foray into the sport of wakeboarding.

This year’s MasterCraft Pro tour will be televised on Fuel TV which is a 24/7 sports channel that is a unit of the Fox Network. Wakeboarding has become an increasingly popular sport over the last few years. This year’s tour will feature competitors from the juniors divisions as well as the women’s pro series.

MonaVie has really embraced the sports world and vice versa. The MonaVie site shows a long distinguished list of athletes from a variety of sports who feel that the health properties found in Mona Vie not only help their training, but are also beneficial to their performance during events. The Acai berry has become a well known and much talked about fruit that is said to boost the immune system, energize the mind and body, and provide all natural nutrition to improve day-to-day health for a more active lifestyle. Everyone from Oprah to Dr. Oz, to have given the thumbs up to this drink.

This sponsorship deal, will bring MonaVie to a large new audience. The X-Treme Sports genre is growing rapidly. Today, over 24 million people subscribe to Fuel TV, bringing Mona Vie to a whole new audience. Mona Vie joins a distinguished group of sponsors for the tour, including, Oakley, Reef, The Air Force, Billabong and Rockstar Energy Drink.

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Popularity: 21% [?]

Just a few months ago, it seemed like Herbalife was the wall street darling. With shares soaring and profits rising, Herbalife, it seemed, had come back from near death. Well, it didn’t’ last long.

Problems began at the beginning of April when the company was red flagged by the Fraud Discovery Institute which cited several violations against the company and suggested that its auditor resign (you can see a copy of the report here). Barry Minkow, who runs the Fraud Discovery Institute, hired a private investigator to look into the biographies of all of the top level executives at Herbalife. What they found was that Herbalife President and COO, Gregory Probert lied about the completion of his MBA degree. Probert has had to admit that he did NOT complete requirement for his MBA as he stated in his biography.

Minkow is no stranger to fraud to himself. He served a sentence for fraud stemming from some corrupt activity at his former company, ZZZZ Best Co. He was also openly called a fraud and profiled on 60 Minutes last summer. Minkow has been a critic of Herbalife for some time now and it seems is determined to do his best to bring the company down (maybe because his own attempts at success have failed so miserably). Minkow is currently shorting the shares to finance his Herbalife Investigation both in the U.S and in China. Minkow has also been on a YouTube rampage shooting videos of Herbalife “Victims.” Minkow is hoping that by shorting the stock, the price will decline. Upon news of the exaggerated bio, stocks did fall almost $4.00 (almost 9%) but our guess is he doesn’t have the financial capacity to short sell a company which averages over a millions shares a day traded .

Officials from Herbalife say that they will hold their own internal investigation into the matter and take appropriate action. Many analysts anticipate the Probert will be reprimanded but not fired. While Probert did exaggerate his bio, his contribution to the company during his tenure has been invaluable and the company has done quite well during his time as president. It seems that Minkow, who has used his own money to fund investigations into the company, has some personal vendetta against the company. Herbalife is under some pressure now to restore its credibility. Aside from the Minkow investigation, authorities in China and in several European Countries are looking into fraudulent activity within the company. It will be interesting to see how the stock continues to do amidst all of the scrutiny.

While we don’t condone what Probert did, it’s hard to applaud Minkow for his actions given his shady past and the fact that he has lost investors a lot of money compared to Probert who has delivered for his shareholders.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In news that we have been anticipating, Avon’s First-Quarter Beauty Sales Grew 17%; Active Representatives Increased 14%.

The company reported today that first-quarter 2008 total revenue grew 14% year over year (6% in local currency) to $2.5 billion. Sales of Beauty products rose 17%. Active Representatives increased 14%. Units sold were up 3% versus the prior-year quarter.

The company’s 17% growth in Beauty sales included increases in all categories: Fragrance grew 20%, Color was up 15%, Personal Care rose 15% and Skin Care increased 13%.

This is really great news for both Avon and for the sector as a whole. We reported that USANA had some hiccups in the first quarter but companies like Avon, Nu Skin and Herbalife were also bell-weather stocks for the industry and this is very positive news.

Andrea Jung, chairman and CEO, commented, “Again this quarter we produced solid results on the momentum of our turnaround plan and the strength of our well-balanced geographic portfolio. Active Representative growth accelerated to one of the highest growth levels in many years, 14%.”

Some other highlights:

Latin America’s first-quarter revenue rose 32% year over year (19% in local currency)

Brazil’s revenue increased nearly 60%, and the markets of Colombia and Venezuela each posted revenue growth of over 20%.

Revenue in China grew 29%

The only negative was the decline in sales in North America (6%) over the period of the previous year. The company attributed the loss to the weakening economy and “service-related problems in filling Representatives’ orders.” - We were a bit curious about this one because we hadn’t heard of such problems but seemed a bit odd. The company did offer guidance that they expect the second quarter to be healthier.

Popularity: 1% [?]