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Consumer Products Conference Recap

Many of the companies that participated in our recent Consumer Products Virtual Investor Conference have been working hard in righting the ship following the post-pandemic hangover that a lot of consumer names have suffered through. There were several new management teams with new strategies, and a lot of talk about inflection points. Vera Bradley’s CEO, CFO, and CMO have each been there for less than two years, and the company is about to roll out its Project Restoration strategic initiatives next month, which management believes will take the company into the third major stage of its lifecycle. Just six months ago, Medifast announced a transformational partnership with a national virtual primary care provider that prescribes GLP-1 weight loss drugs so it can incorporate GLP-1s into its weight management programs. Last month, the company announced its new GLP-1 Lifestyle Program, which is accompanied by a large investment in marketing. The weight loss market has been severely disrupted recently by the proliferation of GLP-1 drugs, so this strategic pivot for the company is designed to put it back on offense after playing defense for the past couple of years. Herbalife has completely turned over its C-Suite within the past two years, but interestingly, it is mostly bringing back folks that have been in those roles in the past and have been quite successful. Additionally, it appointed a new President who has more than 30 years of experience as one of its top independent contractor sales leaders, bringing a wealth of street-level knowledge and experience into the senior management ranks. LifeVantage’s entire current senior management team has been in place for less than four years, and it is looking for its LV360 strategic initiatives that it launched 15 months ago to begin to gain traction now that it has been fully rolled out globally. Solvency was an issue for both Beachbody and Flow Beverages over the past year, and both have staged a comeback. Beachbody has taken $250 million in costs out of its infrastructure to dramatically reduce its break-even point, which is particularly remarkable considering it is currently at about a $500 million annual sales run rate, and it posted positive free cash flow in its most recent quarter. Flow Beverages believes it is about 85% done with its restructuring. Both companies have seemingly built a lot of operating leverage into their business models, which should pay off should top line growth reaccelerate. 1-800-FLOWERS has deleveraged its balance sheet and margins are getting back to pre-pandemic levels. Besides a potential return to organic top-line growth, where it was growing in the high-single digits pre-pandemic, it has the added catalyst of possible M&A activity on the horizon. Lanvin was only formed in 2018 and went public just 18 months ago to take advantage of the expected growth in luxury brands in the Asia-Pacific region. These companies have been paddling hard beneath the surface, so that when consumers come back and the top line begins to grow again, a lot of good things could happen. WTR held its Consumer Products Virtual Investor Conference on June 5 and 6, 2024. Presentations are available on demand accessible via a link in our full report and 1x1 requests can be sent to .