Asia, Europe prop up LifeVantage’s earnings

LifeVantage, which is a network marketing company based in Salt Lake City, UT, sells a variety of dietary supplements and personal care products.  Its base product, and one that still accounts for as much as 70% of sales, is called Protandim. It’s a mixture of herbs including ashwagandha.

In its most recent quarter LifeVantage recorded $56 million in revenue, which was among the company’s best quarters in its history, according to CEO Darren Jensen. The company launched a prebiotic line extension in its weight management suite of products, branded as PhysiIQ, that performed well in the quarter, he said.

Asia provides bright spot

A bright spot for the company was its results in Asia.  Revenue in the Taiwanese market grew by 25% in the quarter.  

And the company was not negatively affected by the Mainland Chinese government’s reexamination of the direct selling sector, which has hurt the results of some other MLMs doing business in the country.  LifeVantage chose to use a direct to consumer ecommerce model in the country, and does not have a traditional MLM distributor network there, Jensen said.

In Europe, LifeVantage added Spain as a market during the quarter and announced the opening of the Irish market earlier this month. And the company is targeting a launch in Belgium later this year. 

LifeVantage’s sales in Europe and Asia accounted for $15.6 million in revenue in the quarter, accounting for a 24.8% increase year over year.  Revenue in the Americas hit $48.4 million, a 6.2% year over year gain.

Revenue recovered

LifeVantage’s earnings seem to now have fully recovered from multiple earnings shocks the company absorbed starting about three years ago. In response to a formal Sarbanes Oxley whistleblower complaint filed by a former employee, the company put new accounting procedures into place to more accurately reflect sales to distributors and to end users. The company also reformed procedures to take into account the new regulatory landscape in the US following the agreement between category leader Herbalife and the US Federal Trade Commission. That settlement, which included a $200 million fine for Herbalife, created fallout throughout the industry.