Weight Watchers’ online revenue grows nearly 70% in Q3

Weight Watchers' web revenue was $101.9 million in Q3.

Weight Watchers International Inc. dined well at the e-commerce table in the third quarter.

For the quarter ended Oct. 1, Weight Watchers, No. 81 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, reported:

• Internet revenue of $101.9 million, up by about 68.5% from $60.5 million in the third quarter of 2010. The big jump in online sales can be attributed to a 54.5% increase to 1.7 million from about 1.1 million in the number of new subscribers signing for the company’s web-based dieting plans, says Weight Watchers.
• Total sales of $428.4 million, up 29.6% from $330.6 million.
• Net income climbed 81.8%, to $80.7 million from $44.4 million.
• Online subscribers of about 1.72 million, a 63.8% increase from 1.05 million.

Internet Retailer calculates the web accounted for 23.8% of total Q3 sales, compared with 18.3% in the same period last year.

Third quarter growth was mainly driven by the Weight Watchers meetings businesses in North America and the United Kingdom and “continued strong growth in our WeightWatchers.com business,” the company says.

For the first nine months:

• Online sales were $299.5 million, up by 69.8% from $176.4 million in the prior year period.
• Total sales were $1.41 billion, up by 29.4% from $1.09 billion.
• Net income was $241.2 million, an increase of 66.0% from $145.3 million.

Internet Retailer calculates the web accounted for 21.2% of total sales in the first nine months of the year, compared with 16.2% in the same period last year.