Due to the untimely death of his mother caused by poor eating habits, and the subsequent anguish that it caused, Mark Hughes began Herbalife by selling the company's original weight loss product out of the trunk of his car. However, later the company adopted a multi-level marketing approach to distribution of its products. The approach utilized basic door-to-door and word-of-mouth campaigns in order to sell its products. The company's slogan, "Lose weight now, Ask me how?" became a battle cry for its growing number of distributors.

Due to the untimely death of his mother caused by poor eating habits, and the subsequent anguish that it caused, Mark Hughes began Herbalife by selling the company's original weight loss product out of the trunk of his car. However, later the company adopted a multi-level marketing approach to distribution of its products. The approach utilized basic door-to-door and word-of-mouth campaigns in order to sell its products. The company's slogan, "Lose weight now, Ask me how?" became a battle cry for its growing number of distributors.

The company's sales had grown to over $2M in the US. In 1986, Herbalife became a publicly traded company after being listed on the NASDAQ exchange. After it's listing, distributors adopted a new slogan, "Make money now, Ask me how!". The company's sales reached $1B in 1996. In 2000, Hughes died at the age of 44 because of a drug overdose; however, the company continued to grow. Annual revenue is approximately $3B. The company was acquired for $685 in 2002.

Though headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company is incorporated in the Caymen Islands. The company has worldwide employment of approximately 3500, and there are approximately 1.9 million distributors located in 70 countries. After 17 years with Walt Disney International, Michael O. Johnson became its new CEO in April 2003.

Herbalife's product line includes products for weight-management such as Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix, a soy-based meal-replacement shake, as well as other products which fall into categories such as heart health, energy and fitness, and skin care.

Though the majority of the company's products are not manufactured by them, a small number of their products are manufactured at a manufacturing facility located in China. Major suppliers to the company include PharmaChem Labs, Fine Foods, NBTY (Natures Bounty), and JB Labs. These companies together account for approximately 40% of Herbalife's products. The company, reportedly, spends less than $2M per year on research and development.

Proponents and other faithful followers of the company's products claim that the Herbalife product line is in keeping with health industry recommendations and guidelines for weight control and management and maintaining a balanced diet. They further claim that their nutritional and weight management line of products facilitate this through macro-nutrient and micro-nutrient food formulas. Some of the products are vegetarian, some are even kosher or halal.

The company has been very successful in the area of nutrition in which it competes, and its distributors are very loyal to the company; however, the company has still met with its share of controversy. While researching many home based business opportunities, I had an opportunity to get an idea about the company and it business model.

Because the company's business model depends so heavily on selling to friends and family (so called "Warm Market") in order to get started, and because of the fact that the average distributor doesn't make the kind of income that I was looking, I decided that this organization would not be a good fit for me; however, for someone who doesn't mind selling to friends and family or has lower income goals, Herbalife might be a perfect fit.

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