Personalized nutrition push drives Usana's results, CEO says

24-Apr-2013 - Last updated on 25-Apr-2013 at 15:12 GMT

An app for iPads and other mobile devices has helped drive Usana's sales.

Usana Health Sciences’ personalized nutrition products and applications have boosted the company’s bottom line, according to statements from company officials during a conference call discussing first quarter results.

Usana introduced its True Health Assessment mobile app last year as an expanded and updated version of a tool that helped sales associates match customers with products that would best serve their needs. Using the app, end users can customize their monthly shipments in a product called MyHealthPak. This app pairs with another Usana offering, the True Health Companion, a mobile app that launched worldwide during the first quarter that helps consumes monitor their health progress. Together they have driven Usana’s success, according to CEO David A. Wentz.

“In the U.S. we're seeing an optimism, general lifting of the economy,” Wentz said during the call. “we're seeing (distributors) purchase much larger quantities of products for personal use, and selling those products to customers.”

Mobile app helps move product

Distributors are fining the mobile app a handy way to move product, Wentz said. It makes for a more complete story abot what customers should buy and why.

“With the True Health Assessment in front of them, it gives them a recommended list of products by ranking, and we're seeing people order further down on that product list than probably normally they would've because they're seeing products personalized for themselves by that iPad app,” he said.

For the quarter, Usana posted net earnings of $17.8 million, an improvement of 29.3% compared with the prior-year period. Sales in China rose by 11.2 % and in North America by 9.4%. The company expects 2013 fiscal year net sales to come in at $700 million to $720 million, which compares to net sales of $582 million in 2011 and $649 million in 2012.

Usana, based in Salt Lake City, UT, is one of the largest direct-selling companies and sells a broad range of dietary supplements and related nutrition products. It ranks no. 17 worldwide, according to a assessment by Direct Selling News in 2012.