US dietary supplement firm Herbalife posts Vietnam net sales of $137 mln in H1

The U.S.-headquartered dietary supplement firm Herbalife recorded net sales of $137.2 million in the first half of this year in Vietnam, down 7.4% year-on-year, according to the firm’s report.

In local currency (Vietnamese dong), the figure decreased 4.9% year-on-year in the period. Fluctuating exchange rates resulted in an unfavorable impact of $3.7 million, Herbalife noted.

The VND depreciated 0.8% against the USD from VND23,610 per $1 on January 1 to VND23,800 per $1 on June 30, according to the central exchange rate issued by the State Bank of Vietnam.

With the performance, Vietnam was the third-biggest market for Herbalife in Asia-Pacific in the six-month period. The top one was India with net sales of $368 million, up 16.6% year-on-year; and China with $155.7 million, up 25.6%.

Sales volume in Vietnam fell in the first half of 2023, Herbalife said, attributing the drop to the impacts of inflationary pressure and the local value added tax (VAT) rate returning to 10%. Besides, the market implemented a 3% price increase in March 2023, following a 10% rise in July 2022, the multi-level marketing firm continued.

Vietnam reduced the VAT rate from 10% to 8% from February 2022 to the end of 2022 to stir up the economy in the post-pandemic period. VAT returned to 10% from January 1, 2023, and then was cut to 8% again in the second half of this year, according to a government decree.

Regarding global results, Herbalife made a post-tax income of $89.2 million on net sales of nearly $2.57 billion from January-June, down 51.7% and 6% year-on-year, respectively.