Weight Watchers International Inc plans to launch a line of snack cakes and muffins in 7-Eleven convenience stores across the United States, part of an ongoing move to increase the size of its licensed food business.
In addition, the company is rolling out portion-control lines of cheese and soft-baked cookies in grocery stores, as it increases the range of its products for weight-conscious Americans.
Weight Watchers gets more than half of its net revenues, which were $1.2 billion in fiscal 2006, from its subscription-based weight loss programs.
But since the New York-based company went public in 2001, it has been stepping up the pace of introducing food items sold in major U.S. supermarket chains.
Foods with the Weight Watchers name are expected to generate $500 million in retail sales this year, up 150 percent from fiscal 2005. Weight Watchers takes an undisclosed license fee from manufacturers.
The company had revenues of $87.5 million in fiscal 2006 from world-wide licensing, franchise royalties and other fees, a 17 percent increase over fiscal 2005, according to its annual report.
Weight Watchers started its branded food products in January 2005 and competes with brands such as ConAgra’s Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine and Jenny Craig, both owned by Nestle, and NutriSystem.
The cheese products, cookies and snack items at 7-Eleven are expected to be in stores nationally by January or February.
The deal with 7-Eleven for individually wrapped muffins and snack cakes marks the first distribution deal for Weight Watchers at a national convenience store. 7-Eleven operates some 7,000 stores in the United States and is known more for hot dogs, sodas, and coffee than for fresh fruits and yogurts.
National grocery chains already sell Weight Watchers-branded food such as candies, baked goods, yogurt, frozen entrees and ice cream novelties.