Herbalife Scores with Ronaldo, Posts Strong 2025 Growth

LOS ANGELES, CA – February 18, 2026 – Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) announced a robust finish to 2025, reporting fourth-quarter and full-year financial results that surpassed guidance and signaled growing operational momentum. The strong performance was punctuated by a blockbuster announcement: global soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo has made a significant personal investment in the company's new digital health and wellness platform, Pro2col.

The nutrition and direct-selling giant reported fourth-quarter net sales of $1.3 billion, a 6.3% increase over the prior year, while full-year net sales ticked up 0.9% to $5.0 billion. The results, which beat the company's own forecasts, were accompanied by a strategic investment from Ronaldo, who acquired a 10% equity stake in Herbalife's subsidiary, Pro2col Software, for $7.5 million.

“We exited 2025 with solid momentum, delivering Q4 and full‑year net sales growth and adjusted EBITDA above guidance,” said CEO Stephan Gratziani in a statement. He emphasized the strategic importance of the new partnership, adding, “Cristiano Ronaldo’s investment in Pro2col reflects our shared ambition to scale personalized nutrition and wellness globally—uniting science, data, AI, innovation, and community to improve the health and performance of millions.”

A Healthy Financial Rebound

Herbalife's 2025 financial report paints a picture of a company stabilizing and strengthening its financial foundation. The full-year adjusted EBITDA reached $657.6 million, marking the second consecutive year of margin expansion for the key profitability metric. This performance was achieved despite facing approximately $56 million in foreign exchange headwinds throughout the year, underscoring the strength of the underlying business operations.

CFO John DeSimone highlighted the company's discipline, stating, “Our results reflect strong operational and financial momentum. For the full year, we delivered our second consecutive year of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, generated strong operating cash flows, reduced debt, and ended 2025 with a total leverage ratio of 2.8x.”

The reduction in leverage from 3.9x in 2023 to 2.8x at the end of 2025 points to a healthier balance sheet, fueled by strong operating cash flows of $333.3 million for the year. This financial stability provides the capital and confidence to invest in significant growth initiatives like the Pro2col platform.

Regionally, the results were mixed but showed pockets of significant strength. The North America region posted a 19% year-over-year increase in new distributor growth in the fourth quarter, its second straight quarter of double-digit gains. Latin America also continued its impressive run, achieving its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. However, worldwide new distributor numbers declined by 5%, indicating that while targeted efforts are paying off, global recruitment remains a complex challenge.

Ronaldo's Bet on a Digital Future

The headline-grabbing news is undoubtedly Cristiano Ronaldo's move from long-time sponsored athlete to equity partner. His $7.5 million investment and commitment of sponsorship rights to the Pro2col platform signal a deep belief in Herbalife's push into personalized, technology-driven wellness.

Pro2col is Herbalife’s ambitious new personalized health and wellness operating system. The platform is designed to empower the company's independent distributors with advanced digital tools, enabling them to provide more tailored coaching and support to their customers. Leveraging data and artificial intelligence, Pro2col aims to create customized nutrition and lifestyle plans, moving beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.

In December 2025, the company expanded the platform's beta access to distributors and customers in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. The next phase of the rollout targets select markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in 2026. This phased approach allows the company to incorporate user feedback to refine the platform's features and personalization capabilities.

Ronaldo's involvement is more than just a celebrity endorsement; it is a strategic play to modernize Herbalife's brand image and attract a new, digitally savvy generation of consumers and distributors. The partnership aims to lend credibility and global appeal to the company's technological transformation.

Modernizing the Direct-Selling Model

Herbalife's investment in Pro2col and its partnership with Ronaldo represent a significant evolution of its traditional direct-selling model. For decades, the company has faced scrutiny regarding its business practices, including a 2016 Consent Order with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that reshaped its domestic operations. By shifting focus toward a sophisticated, high-tech platform that delivers tangible, personalized value to the end consumer, Herbalife appears to be future-proofing its business.

This digital pivot equips its global network of distributors with tools to compete in a wellness market increasingly dominated by personalized solutions and data-driven insights. It transforms the role of a distributor from a simple product seller to a tech-enabled wellness coach. The improvements to distributor marketing pages and a new coach dashboard within Pro2col are early examples of this effort to enhance the connection between distributors and their clients.

While the company has a massive existing network of distributors, the success of this transformation will hinge on their ability to adopt and effectively utilize the new technology. The strong new distributor growth in North America suggests that the modernizing message may be resonating in key markets.

Looking ahead, Herbalife projects continued growth in 2026. The company issued full-year guidance for net sales growth between 1.0% and 6.0%, with adjusted EBITDA projected to be between $670 million and $710 million. These figures, which meet or exceed many analyst expectations at their midpoint, suggest that management is confident that its financial momentum and strategic investments will continue to yield positive results.