Romeo Cazanescu, Herbalife Nutrition Romania: “We’re seeing an increase in the number of people who want to live a healthy and active lifestyle”

“The pandemic has put health and wellbeing at the forefront of society and we’re confident that we have the right resources and strategies to take advantage of what we see as a huge market opportunity in the year ahead,” Romeo Cazanescu, Country Director Herbalife Nutrition Romania, Moldavia, Hungary and Bulgaria, told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“As our products are sold exclusively through a network of Herbalife Nutrition independent distributors, we’ll also continue to develop digital solutions that support their businesses. (…) We’ll continue to focus on our key growth strategies of product expansion across our three product categories (weight management, sports nutrition, health and wellness) that address significant global trends and which represent an enormous market opportunity of over $150 billion.”

COMMITMENT TO PERFORMANCE | BUSINESS EVOLUTION, PROJECTS, PERFORMANCE, FIGURES  

“Over the course of the global pandemic, we’ve delivered unprecedented business performance and growth globally as demand for high-quality nutrition products has increased. Worldwide in FY2020, we achieved net sales of $5.5 billion, a 13.6 percent increase compared to FY2019, representing the largest annual net sales result in the company’s history and with three of our six regions, including EMEA, setting annual net sales records. We remain on track for another record sales year in FY2021 with global demand for our science-based nutrition products continuing to benefit the company.

The number of new distributors and preferred customers joining the business globally increased in our third quarter by 28 percent compared to Q3 2019 which is hugely reassuring and will ensure the future continuity of service and sales. We’re also seeing similar trends in Romania.

As a business that puts great focus on building one-to-one relationships with its distributors and customers, the way we and our distributors have seamlessly transitioned to the virtual world has been so important. Our continued focus on embracing digital technology to engage with distributors, and they with their customers, has helped to deliver strong sales growth, new products and some of the biggest online events in our distributor calendar with record numbers of participants.”

STRATEGY & VISION |  RETHINK STRATEGY & PRIORITIES

“In 2021, we all had to adapt to the ‘new normal’, whether country director, distributor or employee. This was slightly less daunting having navigated our way through the previous year where we didn’t know always what to expect from each day to the next. As we entered 2021, we felt better equipped to deal with these unknowns, had an idea of how the things could work, and continued to aim for a healthy work/life balance while supporting our distributors as much a possible by offering them the right tools to run their businesses.

We’ll continue to focus on our key growth strategies of product expansion across our three product categories (weight management, sports nutrition, health and wellness) that address significant global trends and which represent an enormous market opportunity of over $150 billion. For example, product innovation with several lines in focus, including the Herbalife24 Sports nutrition brand, has contributed to a 30 percent growth in our ‘energy, sport and fitness’ category over the last 12 months. We also aim to increase sales for new products over the next five years by localising product development and improving how quickly we get them to market.

The pandemic has put health and wellbeing at the forefront of society and we’re confident that we have the right resources and strategies to take advantage of what we see as a huge market opportunity in the year ahead. As our products are sold exclusively through a network of Herbalife Nutrition independent distributors, we’ll also continue to develop digital solutions that support their businesses.

We’ll also continue to attract new people to the business and meet the growing demand for flexible self-employment. This kind of flexibility and ability to determine your own working style is something we know appeals to many Romanians from the results of a 2021 survey on their attitudes to entrepreneurship. The survey was carried out by OnePoll on 25,000 respondents, aged 18 to 40 across 35 countries, including Romania.

Of those interested in self-employment, the top factor that motivates Romanians (45 percent) is to become their own boss, along with the possibility to increase their income (45 percent), followed by the ability to follow their passion (42 percent). Respondents across all countries, when asked at what age they thought it would be easiest to start a business, said 28 years old. This is a great insight into the 21st century workforce and a demand which we can meet.”

PEOPLE & COMMUNITY | FOCUS ON SAFETY, SOCIAL APPROACH, LEVERAGE THE POWER OF COMMUNITY

“We’re committed to making a positive impact in the communities in which we operate. We do this globally through our Nutrition for Zero Hunger (NFZH) initiative by supporting leading international NGOs ’Feed the Children’ and ’The Hunger Project’ who both work to eliminate the challenges of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

At the end of 2021, we released our first ever global responsibilty report and reported global charitable donations of $9.5 million. We donated more than 975,000 meals and food subsidy boxes to families and communities and 874,000 servings of nutrition products to those in need.

In Romania, we proudly continued to support our local communities through our Herbalife Nutrition Foundation (HNF) charity, in particular, the ‘Ana si Copiii Association’ whose aim is to improve the lives of Romanian children and their families by providing them healthy nutrition and access to nutrition education.

In 2021, we provided them with financial support for the construction of a kitchen and dining room in their new education and social support center in Bucharest. In addition, we supported activities and workshops that encouraged a healthy, active lifestyle, this included a workshop in May with a cooking blogger who talked to the children about the importance of preparing a balanced meal and prepared two quick and delicious recipes with them.”

KEEN ON GREEN |  SUSTAINABLE, GREENER, COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUS

“We continued working towards our commitment to sustainability with a focus on responsible sourcing, natural resource usage and product packaging innovation; we were also proud to report that we received 14 awards for good sustainabilty practice in the previous year.

In our first ever global responsibility report, we reported that we’d recycled more than 766,000 kilograms of packaging and other materials in the previous year, removed more than 227,000 kilograms of plastics, paper and other materials from our packaging and operations, and in EMEA, have eliminated plastic carrier bags, switching to 100 percent recyclable paper alternatives.

Also in EMEA, innovations include eliminating shrink wrap on our protein bar cartons, expected to decrease packaging and plastic use by 19.5 tons annually – and reducing the cardboard used in shipping products around the region by 80 percent. In our Romanian sales centers, special areas are designated to recycle the plastic canisters and packaging.

Our global presence means we’re committed to doing more to provide life-changing opportunities focused on supporting healthy communities, economic empowerment, and a thriving planet. To drive progress, we have set a goal to achieve 50 million positive impacts across our global responsibility programmes by 2030, the 50th anniversary of Herbalife Nutrition.”

DIGITAL DNA  | GRASPING TECH, DIGITAL INNOVATION, CUSTOMER -DRIVEN, BUILDING NEW BRIDGES

“Herbalife Nutrition’s core entrepreneurial value of ‘we build it better’ has been evident throughout the last 12 months and integral to keeping connected in a remote world. Our independent distributors have increasingly used social media and other digital technology to engage with their consumers, whether it’s one-to-one or in groups.

We’ve also used existing and new technology to keep our key distributor events and conferences on the Herbalife calendar – the biggest being our annual ‘extravaganza’ events, several days of motivation, recognition, awards and learning, which saw a record number of participants in Europe and Africa in 2021. We’ve also developed and launched a learning app for our distributors called named ‘HN GROW’. This app helps distributors to keep up to date with essential and new product and company information.”

What trends do you anticipate for this year?

“We’re already seeing an increase in the number of people who want to live a healthy and active lifestyle and were encouraged by a survey we commissioned last year in which nearly 60 percent of Romanians said that they’d choose a healthier diet in 2022 – a demand we’re ready to meet.

We’ll continue to help our independent distributors support their customers with great-tasting, science-backed products, good information and the motivation they need to achieve their personal goals. As the #1 brand in weight management* new product innovation will continue to be a strategic focus globally with three new products launching in Romania this year.

We’ll also focus on growing our distributor base and will continue to present the Herbalife Nutrition business opportunity as one which is open to anybody who’s interested in joining and with low start-up costs and a guaranteed refund for unopened products purchased in the previous 12 months.”

2021 IN 3 KEY WORDS

“Innovation, Challenge, Adaption”

2022 IN 3 KEY WORDS

“Progress, Healthy, Sustainable”