Romeo Cazanescu, Herbalife Nutrition: “Leaders need to be an inspiration and a role model for their teams”

“This year, we’ve continued to see and respond to several trends, including an increased focus on health and well-being and a growing demand for plant-based diets. We’ve been offering high quality, plant-based solutions for over 40 years and have been reformulating many of our products to be 100 percent vegan,” Romeo Cazanescu, Country Director Herbalife Nutrition Romania, Moldavia, Hungary and Bulgaria told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“We’ve seen one group in particular, Gen Z, who are demanding high quality vegan products and also driving change in the future of food. This demographic is a really important part of our business and a focus of our product strategy. As our product range develops, we have their preferences top-of-mind; vegan shakes and drinks will continue to position Herbalife Nutrition as an attractive option for our younger customers.”

What are the business trends for Herbalife Nutrition in 2021 and what do you think are the main business drivers for business growth in 2021 in your industry?

This has been a great year for Herbalife Nutrition; in our second quarter, we reported global net sales of $1.6 billion – a 15 percent increase compared to the second quarter 2020. This was also the largest quarterly net sales result in the company’s history and reflects our successful growth strategy and demand for Herbalife Nutrition products.

This year, we’ve continued to see and respond to a number of trends, including an increased focus on health and well-being and a growing demand for plant-based diets. We’ve been offering high quality, plant-based solutions for over 40 years and have been reformulating many of our products to be 100 percent vegan.

We launched this year F1 Gourmet, a tasty mushroom soup that can replace a meal. It has vegan ingredients and it’s so versatile – you can use it as a key ingredient for various recipes -pasta, dressing for salad or muffins.

We’ve seen one group in particular, Gen Z, who are demanding high quality vegan products and also driving change in the future of food. This demographic is a really important part of our business and a focus of our product strategy. As our product range develops, we have their preferences top-of-mind; vegan shakes and drinks will continue to position Herbalife Nutrition as an attractive option for our younger customers.

Gen Z are also highly discerning in who they buy their products from, where they’ve come from and how they’re made – it’s not just about price for them. This is why we believe that they’re engaging with us so much. Herbalife products are made to the highest standard – from the selection of our ingredients to the final product.

Please describe a future vision around the topic and how your company is strategically positioned

Our mission is to improve nutritional habits around the world with great-tasting, science-backed nutrition products that help people get the right balance of healthy nutrition. The fact that we’re aligned with global trends and have a portfolio of products to meet these demands offers us enormous market opportunity across three key segments: weight management, sports nutrition and health and wellness – markets worth a combined $150 billion.

Herbalife Nutrition’s unique advantage over its competitors is its ‘distributor difference’ – our global network of Herbalife independent distributors (and 75,000+ nutrition clubs globally) who work with their customers to help them achieve their health and wellness targets. This community approach is important because we know that making lifestyle changes and achieving wellness goals can be challenging and that’s why our distributors provide support to their customers. Although their activity moved almost entirely to online, our Distributors never ceased to support their clients. 1 to 1 support, personalized nutritional plans, online sport classes and informational webinar, all these make the difference. Our key growth strategies are to build on and support our distributor base through on-going product expansion and technology to help them do business better. 

What kind of culture & values needed improvement in 2021?

Today, more than ever, Herbalife Nutrition’s leaders need to be an inspiration and a role model for our teams and provide them with the support they need. Our senior leaders and managers have put a great deal of effort into keeping the positive spirit of Herbalife alive with our employees and distributors by focusing on our core value of ‘working together’ as one team.

In house, we’ve equipped our managers and employees with the tools, equipment, and resources that they need to help them through these difficult times that the pandemic has presented us all with. This includes regular team catch-ups online (formal and informal), access to independent counselling services, wellness events and apps and, most importantly, an understanding that this has not been an easy year for any of us.

I believe that by pulling together, and helping everybody to keep going, we’ve been able to come through this year and have seen great strength of character in our great workforce. 

What adjustments has brought the digitalization, tech tools and AI applications in your company in 2020 and 2021?

Throughout 2020 and 2021, our team of doctors, scientists, nutritionists, and fitness professionals have provided Herbalife Nutrition distributors and their customers with a range of advice and information to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle via digital platforms and social media. In Romania, we run different communication campaigns such as dedicated campaign to support immune health by providing useful information about what can each individual do to maintain their immune system strong. This is a very important topic and we’re here to support our customers’ needs with science backed products, such as Immune Booster, recently launched in Romania.

In addition, one of our biggest achievements has been to take our annual ‘Extravaganza’ events online. A highlight of the year, each event is usually hosted in a European city over several days for our top distributors who receive product training, share their stories, hear from our senior leaders and medical experts, and take part in award and recognition ceremonies. We’ve been able to maintain a high number of delegates with 13,000 registrations this year plus many more who joined on-line watch parties.

How do you measure your progress toward sustainability? What milestones do you have?

Building it Better is one of our core values and it has been in our DNA for more than 40 years. This value is applied to every aspect of our business including our performance on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG-Sustainability). Herbalife Nutrition’s Board of Directors formed our ESG-Sustainability Committee in 2020 and appointed three Board members to it; the Committee provides guidance and advises the Board on the Company’s ESG-Sustainability – related strategies, initiatives, investments, and policies. 

Our ESG-Sustainability Index highlights our efforts to drive positive impact for our employees, independent distributors, business partners, communities and the planet while driving sustainable business growth. The Index will be updated regularly as we continue to add or modify policies, data and practices relating to the key elements of ESG-Sustainability.

Why is it important for a company to become sustainable? How are the sustainability aspects approached in your industry?

We want to have a positive impact in the communities in which we operate through good nutrition and environmental stewardship – a key focus, now more than ever, for our distributors, customers, employees, and shareholders.

We’re committed to environmental sustainability and importantly with most of our products made from plant-based proteins. We also prioritise responsible sourcing, natural resource usage and product packaging innovation as part of our sustainability drive.

The company is currently engaged in many projects to support environmental sustainability, including reducing the number of shipments between manufacturing sites to reduce carbon emissions, digitizing documentation, records, and receipts, and reducing the amount of plastic used in our product packaging, including plastic wrapping on boxes and single use plastic bags. As a result, since 2008, we’ve removed 1,600 metric tons of plastic by reducing plastic used in our F1 canisters globally and will continue to systematically analyse all the packaging with the goal to further reduce plastic usage in our product canisters. We’ve also recycled more than 200,000 kg of plastic recycled since 2013 through a canister recycling programs in our sales centres, including Romania.