Vitamin Shoppe has entered the telehealth services sector by offering a GLP-1 program, partnering with WellSync to provide the service.

The Vitamin Shoppe CEO Lee Wright joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the roll-out of its new GLP-1 program.

When asked if the company is confident in its ability to secure enough supply to meet demand, Wright says, "We have a great partner in WellSync, it's our telehealth partner. They have a strong network of pharmacies. And whether they're retail, mail order or compound pharmacies, we feel pretty confident that through that various network that we can supply that demand."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

The vitamin shop is throwing its hat in the ring for consumers looking for weight loss solutions.

The omni channel specialty retailer making its first ever help telehealth partnership with the roll out of each G LP One program.

Joining us with more vitamin shop.

See the right here with us in studio.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

So everybody is crazy for the GLP once.

Obviously, we've been talking about it a lot.

Um And so did you all say, well, we want a piece of the action or how did, how did this come about?

It's a natural question.

It clearly there's a huge demand out there.

But the vitamin shop has always been a destination for Wellness since 19 7, since 1977 or a founding.

So we're incredibly excited to actually go into it's a natural evolution into offering telehealth and the first need.

State that we will satisfy are the G LP ones for weight loss medication.

But ultimately, we plan on going further and offering other need states whether it's low testosterone, hormone replacement therapy, smoking cessation, allergies, et cetera.

Are you confident going to be able to secure enough supply of those G LP ones.

Well, we're incredibly lucky.

We have a great partner in Well, Sync and Sar telehealth partner.

They have a strong network of pharmacies and whether they're retail mail order or compound pharmacies.

We feel pretty confident that through that uh various network that we can't supply that demand.

And so how do you, how is this going to work for customers?

And do you expect it to be existing vitamin shop customers who come in and then know that you have the service or will you get new folks in the door?

It's a combination of both.

We're incredibly excited because we actually did do a study to see how many customers would want to use a telehealth service from the vitamin shop.

And we had over 40% of customers and respondents say that they would like to have a telehealth service from the vitamin shop and of existing vitamin shop customers, over 80% said they were very likely to use a telehealth service.

So we think we'll get a combination of both and the reason why the vitamin shop is a trusted resource.

It's not just you're gonna get a GOP one drug for weight loss.

You're gonna think about a holistic solution to your weight loss journey because we're gonna match it with expertise and education as well as nutritional supplements that can fill in those gaps that you may be having when you're in a calorie deficit.

If you're on a GOP one drug and, and Lee, let's so let's say you're a vi a vitamin shop customer.

You're interested.

How much does it actually cost?

So we have a variety of options.

We, we offer the brand name drugs such as Ozempic uh Men Jro uh rebels as well as the, the compound semi glutes or Zetti.

Um but just as low as an introductory rate of 219 a month And then from there on could be 269 a month after that first month.

But the great news is it's cancelable at any time.

Uh We don't lock you in for a long term and it's really just, that's all encompassing.

So you get all the education resources, you're not paying anything extra.

We're just focused on the, on the actual drug itself and the education, the resources and expertise of both our health enthusiasts in store and online is free as well as help helping people with their nutritional supplements.

They should be on if they are on a GOP, one drug.

Now, you guys are, are not a public company anymore.

You got taken private a few years ago.

But can you tell us anything about what kind of sales bump you might expect from this or what kind of financial situation you'll get out of this partnership?

Well, we're incredibly excited about it.

We do think it will be a material bump in our sales because again, it's that natural evolution.

We're expanding the ecosphere of what the vitamin shop offers to both existing and new customers because we've never been thought of is someone that will actually provide medications through a telehealth partner.

We've been thought of as a natural supplements and nutraceuticals.

So it's really a large expansion of our business.

And Lee you could still have an interesting line of citing to the consumer.

So I'm just curious, like more broadly how the consumer looks to you.

How does the, how does the economy look to you?

I think we are seeing a consumer that is a bit strained right now.

They are feeling pressure, they're looking for more value.

So we actually did do a launch of what we're calling our price shred and end cap of lower price and lower serving sizes.

And we're seeing a large response of consumers.

I think telling us that consumers are feeling their budgets being constrained right now.

Interesting.

Lastly, on the telehealth piece, I just wanted to ask since we have some big companies pulling back on their either in, in house health care offerings like a Walmart or telehealth.

It's interesting that you guys are making this move at a time when we are seeing some other companies pull back.

Are there any sort of lessons learned from what you've seen elsewhere or ways that you're doing it differently?

Well, I do, I think it's a natural evolution for us because we are a destination for health wellness for others, whether they're med spas or other retailers, that's not their natural space.

It's just health and wellness.

But for the vitamin shop, that is our core area of expertise and providing that quality, innovation and expertise for our customers.

So we think we can provide that holistic and long lasting solution for customers to have their lifelong journey of weight loss or whatever help they're looking for.

All right, Lee, thanks so much for coming in today.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.