Weight Watchers has unveiled a slimmed down version of its name, rebranding itself WW, in what it says marks “the next stage of the company’s evolution”.
The company says the new name reflects its development from focusing on weight loss to overall health and wellness.
But the chief executive was unable to explain what the letters WW stood for.
Mindy Grossman said they did not stand for Weight Watchers or “Wellness that Works”, a phrase the company has trade marked, but were simply “a marque”.
“That marque represents our heritage and history and what we are going forward,” she said.
Ms Grossman, who took the helm just over a year ago, said the firm had been shifting from a focus on just weight loss to its broader remit looking at “wellness” over the past two years.
“This is just a next step, a point of validation. Like any brand we have to stay relevant,” she said.
US media personality Oprah Winfrey – who bought a stake in the company in 2015 and works as an ambassador for Weight Watchers – said she had always thought that the company’s role in people’s lives “goes far beyond a number on the scale”.
Oprah’s involvement has seen the firm’s share price surge from under $5 each to about $70 currently. Its latest results show sales rose nearly 18% in the three months to the end of June, with subscribers up by one million from a year earlier to 4.5 million.
However, concern that the firm’s momentum could be slowing sparked a sharp sell-off in the shares recently.
