Launch, IPO, and sale to Heinz
Nidetch and the Lipperts launched Weight Watchers Inc. in Queens in 1963 with Nidetch as president and evangelist. They rented public meeting venues and charged participants $2 per weekly meeting;[28][29][30] the first official meeting, in May 1963, attracted 400 attendees.[31][32] Nidetch led groups and trained others to lead groups as well.[33]
Al Lippert, in charge of the business end of the company, franchised it in 1964, using a razor/razorblade model of an inexpensive franchise fee offered to graduates from the company's programs who had kept the weight off,[34] with 10% of gross earnings as royalties to the parent company.[30][35][26] By 1967, the company was international, with 102 franchises in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, and Israel.[12]
Felice Lippert was in charge of recipe development, nutrition, and food research; the first Weight Watchers cookbook, published in 1966, sold more than 1.5 million copies.[35] By January 1968, the company had more than one million members worldwide, and, with the help of Matty Simmons' and Leonard Mogel's Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., Weight Watchers Magazine was launched, publishing 300,000 copies of its first issue.[36][37]
By 1968, the company had 91 franchises in 43 states,[38] and to expand further overseas Al Lippert took the company public as Weight Watchers International Inc.; the initial 225,000 shares, offered at $11.25 a share, began trading enthusiastically, rising to over $30 by the end of the first day.[39][26][35] Lippert also initiated lines of Weight Watchers prepared food, spas, camps for overweight kids, and weight-loss products such as scales and travel kits.[40][39]
Nidetch, with her slim, well-dressed image, charisma, and flair for motivational speaking, remained the public face of the company.[41][42][22] In 1970 she published The Memoir of a Successful Loser: The Story of Weight Watchers, which documented the original Weight Watchers plan. In 1973 she resigned as president of the company to devote herself to public relations – traveling, being interviewed, and speaking to large audiences about the program's success.[35][18]
In the mid-1970s, the company moved away from simply dieting and more toward "eating management", developing tailored options to meet the varying needs of its members, including a specialized food plan for the management of weight-loss plateaus, and a maintenance plan.[43][44]
In 1975, the publication of Weight Watchers magazine was taken over by Family Media (the publishers of Family Health magazine).[45]
By the late 1970s, the company and its operations and divisions had grown too large and complex for Lippert to manage, and it was sold, along with its food licensees, to the H. J. Heinz Company in 1978 for $72 million.[40][46] Lippert remained chairman and signed on to remain CEO for a few years,[40] and Nidetch remained in her role as consultant.[33] In the late 1980s, the company's three divisions – support-group meetings division, food line, and publications and media – were still increasingly profitable year-over-year.[35]
