The diet company known as WeightWatchers filed for bankruptcy saying its 62-year-old business model was now under threat amid the rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic. New York-based WW International said on Tuesday that it was seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and position the “company for long-term growth and success.”
“The decisive actions we’re taking today, with the overwhelming support of our lenders and noteholders, will give us the flexibility to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members, and lead with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape,” CEO Tara Comonte said in a statement.
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“As the conversation around weight shifts toward long-term health, our commitment to delivering the most trusted, science-backed, and holistic solutions – grounded in community support and lasting results – has never been stronger, or more important.”
The company said it had arranged a prepackaged restructuring deal with certain lenders to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt. It hopes to exit bankruptcy within 45 days or sooner. The company also said via a website it launched that there would be “no disruption to your service of membership” due to the bankruptcy.
WeightWatchers has been attempting to reinvent itself for years. In the late 2010s, it has shifted its emphasis to wellness, and of late, it has been embracing weight loss drugs. In 2023, it ended many of the in-person meetings its popularized decades ago as part of a broader cost-cutting plan, displeasing many of its longstanding members. Around the same time, it acquired telehealth platform Sequence, where people can get prescriptions to the popular new class of GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs. In 2024, longtime WeightWatchers investor and booster Oprah Winfrey left the company’s board.
The company’s 2024 revenue of $786 million was more than a billion less than its all-time high of $1.84 billion in 2012. Its losses have totaled more than $700 million over the last three years.
Tara Comonte took over as CEO after Sima Sistani — who guided WeightWatchers to embrace weight-loss drugs and apologized for the company’s past emphasis on personal responsibility — left in a sudden shakeup in September 2024. Comonte initially took over as interim CEO and got the permanent job in February.