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Reliv announced that they now have a new Vice President of Operations. Debra Hellweg will fill the role as the company’s first Vice President of Operations, which is a newly created position.

Hellweg has been with the St. Louis based company since 2004. She originally joined the company as director of internal audit. Prior to joining Reliv, Hellweg was internal audit manager at Deloitte & Touche and VP and auditor of Southwest Bank of St. Louis.

In her new position, Hellweg will be responsible for several different departments including the Travel Department and the Distributor Service Center.

“Debra will continue to be a great asset to Reliv in this new position,” said R. Scott Montgomery, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “As director of internal audit, Debra learned in detail the company’s departments, processes and procedures not only here at the home office, but at all of our non-U.S. offices, too.”

Hellweg brings years of experience and knowledge to the new positions. She received a bachelor’s degree in business admin from the Univ of Missouri and an M.B.A from Webster University. Hellweg is also a certified internal auditor.

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The Oxygen Network featured a segment recently on the program, “Her Domain” dedicated to the Reliv Nutritional Company and their products. The segment featured Dr. Carl Hasting, the Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Reliv.

The original broadcast was set for May 24th at 6 AM, Eastern and Pacific time, which is very early, but if you didn’t set your Tivo or DVR, not to worry, they will rebroadcast the show several times.

The show focused on the Reliv products, the goals of the company and featured Dr. Hastings speaking about the science behind the products as well as what sets these nutritional supplements apart from others on the market.

This is an exciting year for Reliv, the company was founded in 1988 and is celebrating their 20th anniversary all year. The Reliv anniversary tour will feature stops in cities across the US and will culminate with a big celebration in mid-August in Downtown St. Louis.

It’s nice to hear some good news coming from a nutritional MLM company. I think that what sets them apart from all the others at the moment is that they are not involved in any litigation. Oxygen says that the “Her Domain” show attracts on average 4 million viewers, which will bring a lot of great positive publicity to the company.

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The Reliv Kalogris Foundation today announced the completion of a feeding center and a school for impoverished children in Cavite City, Philippines. The Foundation raised the funds last August during its “Walk for the Mission” in downtown St. Louis.

The Reliv Foundation provides nutritional supplements to approximately 270 organizations, including schools, hospitals, orphanages and feeding centers in 15 countries, but the Cavite City center is the first center built by the foundation.

“Our center is the only one in Cavite City registered and approved to operate a continuous feeding program,” said Scott Montgomery, chairman of the Reliv Foundation. “For some of the children, the Reliv supplements are the only nutrition they eat on many days,” he added.

Sister Beth Perez runs the Cavite City feeding center. In 2007, Sister Perez asked the Reliv Foundation to replace the tattered, blue vinyl tarp that served as the roof of her existing, one-story feeding center. Rather than provide a new tarp, the foundation built and furnished a new, three-story building, which includes the feeding center and a classroom.

“The completion of this feeding center underscores the Reliv Foundation’s mission, to ‘nourish our world’ by providing Reliv nutritional supplements to support needy individuals and organizations throughout the world,” said Montgomery, who is also executive vice president and chief operating officer of Reliv International, Inc.

Every day, the Foundation provides essential nutrition to approximately 42,000 people in 15 countries, most of them children living in poverty.

Approximately 4,000 Reliv distributors and their families participated in the “Walk for the Mission,” which raised more than $180,000 for the foundation.

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Missouri based Reliv International (NASDAQ: RELV)announced their first quarter results, which were a bit lower than last year as net sales and net income both fell.

Net sales for the quarter ended March 31 were down almost 20% from last year. Sales went from $35 million in first quarter of 2007 to $28.3 million for same period this year. Earnings dropped as well, more than 42% as Reliv’s first quarter profits fell to $1.5 million and 10 cents per share, a significant decrease from the 2007 numbers of $2.6 million and 16 cents per share.

Reliv says that weak sales in the U.S are to blame for the low numbers. International sales increased over 17% to $3.6 million. Net sales in Malaysia and Singapore doubled and sales in the Philippines rose 30 percent. U.S sales fell over 22 percent from $31.9 million last year first quarter to $24.7 million in 2008.

In the next week or so, many of the network marketing companies will be or already have released first quarter results. While Herbalife managed to stay on top of their game, the weakened economy here in the U.S. is taking its toll on sales for many other network marketing companies. Reliv also announced that their distributor base grew by 1,000 people and is hovering near the 70,000 distributor mark. This proves that people want to be involved with network marketing and direct sales for extra income, but the higher number of distributors doesn’t seem to be translating into sales, at least in the U.S.

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