How Slim-Fast Lost Out to Weight-Loss Rivals

In 2000, Unilever acquired diet-drink maker Slim-Fast for $2.4 billion and had ambitions to increase its new unit’s revenue fivefold in three years. Unfortunately for the Anglo-Dutch consumer-products giant, Slim-Fast’s sales in the U.S., its biggest market, started to decline in 2003. Revenue has fallen 40 percent to $196 million since 2008, according to data trackers SymphonyIRI Group. Over the same four-year period, the global meal-replacement category has grown 27 percent, researcher Euromonitor International reports, with rivals including Kellogg’s Special K line picking up the slack. “Kellogg did really well to launch their own [weight-control] products just when Slim-Fast had troubles,” says Lee Linthicum, an analyst at Euromonitor.