How have internet sales contributed to GNC’s business?
JF: Our web business grew about 28% in 2008. It’s growing very fast again in 2009. We plan to continue to accelerate the website and we are investing about $5 million over the next few years to redevelop the whole thing. The functionality will be redone. It will have an interactive feel to it. They’ll also be some social networking components within the next 12-18 months. Obviously we are looking at ways to get more aggressive on the web to be competitive with some of our major web competitors. NBJ: What percentage of GNC’s business is done on the internet? JF: Web sales are very small component, less than 3%. I think our web business in the next 3 years will be $125 million. We’ve just touched the surface there, it wasn’t a priority early on, but we’ve made it more of a priority. NBJ: Has the economic recession helped GNC’s private label [Pro Performance brand]? NBJ has seen examples of consumers trading down to private label in the foods market to maximize value. JF: Even with our en
