Living large on diet aids

Zacatecas, Mexico

Selling pricey diet-shake mixes in a developing country wouldn't seem like a very smart business idea, but Enrique Varela was despairing.

Eighteen years ago, his animal-feed business was struggling. He was thousands of dollars in debt.

Today, he and his wife own a fleet of luxury cars, four ranches and eight houses -- including a custom-built home with an elevator and a cupola-covered hot tub overlooking a golf course in this central Mexican city.

They bought it all with the proceeds from peddling products from Herbalife Ltd., the Century City-based maker of weight-loss aids and nutritional supplements.

Varela and his wife, Graciela Mier de Varela, were the No. 1 Herbalife distributors on the planet last year, with network sales topping $100 million. This year the couple got a check for $1.8 million, the largest bonus in the history of the multilevel marketing company. That's on top of the millions the husband-and-wife team has earned through the army of independent salespeople in their network.

Their powder-pushing prowess helped make Mexico Herbalife's top market last year with $373.2 million in sales, besting the U.S. tally of $338.3 million.

The Varelas' sales empire is all the more stunning considering that they generate most of their business in Mexico, where a $29 canister of the company's signature diet shake mix equals a week's wages for many consumers.

The secret of their success? Sales 101: Know your customers.

"Mexico has a lot more poor people than rich ones," said Varela, now 60. "We had to find a way to reach them."

An ebullient, talkative bantam of a man, Varela said that people come to Herbalife out of "inspiration or desperation."

For him, it was a little of both.

The son of a livestock farmer, Varela studied veterinary medicine. But what he really wanted to be was an entrepreneur. When Mexico's economic crisis of the 1980s slammed his feed business, he needed another enterprise he could start on the cheap.

Stressed and overweight, in 1989 he went to a sales meeting for Herbalife, which was just breaking into the Mexican market. Varela tried the products and started dropping pounds. He felt better. He had found his calling.

Undaunted by his first paycheck -- a measly $43 -- he set about building his network.

"I knew I wanted to bring this good nutrition to people," said Varela, who quaffs an Herbalife shake every morning to start his day.