What Does the NBR Say About Usana?
The National Business Review, which wrote a critical story about Usana, has now responded to Usana's letter to their editor in their story National Business Review (NBR) responds to Usana Of particular interest to me were two claims, and how NBR handled them.
Usana: This article states that associates are required to buy hundreds of dollars of products every month. This is simply not true. There are no requirements that our associates buy any products whatsoever.NBR: Our article states that, to qualify for commissions, distributors have to buy a minimum quota of Usana products every four weeks, and that quota in New Zealand costs $290. Please see Usana's 2006 10K filing to the US Securities & Exchange Commission, which states that 'qualifying purchases are the amount of product that associates must purchase each month, which they must either re-sell to consumers or personally use, to be qualified to earn commissions or bonuses under Usana's compensation plan.'Ms Malmgren discussed these qualifying purchases with Usana vice president Fred Cooper, who confirmed that in 2006 87 per cent of Usana's commission-earning distributors did not make enough money to recoup the cost of their monthly purchases.
Usana: Usana's research, which was shared with Ms Malmgren, shows that over 75 per cent of the more than 128,000 associates participating in an online poll cited their interest in the company's products as the primary reason they join.
NBR: Usana gave Ms Malmgren three contradictory accounts of this survey. Ms Malmgren asked repeatedly for information that would clear up these contradictions and put this survey into some kind of meaningful context. Her last request for this information was by email the day before the article ran, and Usana did not answer her.If Usana would like to answer Ms Malmgren’s questions about the survey now, NBR would consider posting it on our website along with the July 13 story.
This survey is critical to Usana -they have repeated and relied upon it a number of times.
It is clearly material to the stock price of Usana.
Why hasn't it been disclosed in the SEC filings?
Has any analyst seen, reviewed and and questions about it?
Why did no one ever hear about this survey prior to Minnkow's investigation?
Is the survey oral or written?
What was the scope of this survey?
Why was it undertaken?
We look forward to the answers from Usana about the survey.
