One of Herbalife’s top salesmen is leaving the company to join a rival — and is taking some of his followers with him, The Post has learned.
Shawn Dahl — one of the elite Herbalife distributors in the so-called “Chairman’s Club” — and some of his sales recruits are jumping to Nutrie, a competing diet protein shake peddler.
The impact on Herbalife’s US sales may be significant. When another top distributor, Anthony Powell, left during the first quarter, Herbalife’s US sales growth was cut nearly in half, due to his departure and related business changes.
Herbalife said the loss of Dahl’s business “is not material.”
His status at Herbalife has been in doubt since the company banned its distributors from buying sales leads and other marketing materials from Online Business Systems, run by Dahl. The ban starts July 1.
Dahl’s photo was taken off a video of the Chairman’s Club in late April.
But when asked if he had left the company, Herbalife told The Post that Dahl was still a Chairman’s Club member, then took down the video link. Herbalife repeated the assertion during its quarterly conference call with analysts.
Herbalife said the parting was “amicable” and confirmed that Dahl was leaving “to pursue other interests.”
The company has been cutting back on the controversial recruiting practices of its US distributors, including the lead generation business of Online Business Systems, which has been criticized in consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission.
The moves followed hedge fund activist Bill Ackman’s charge that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme — as he placed a $1 billion short bet on it. Herbalife has denied the charge.
Earlier this month, calls and e-mails obtained by The Post involving Dahl and another top Herbalife distributor, Tanya McDowall, indicated they were recruiting Herbalife distributors for Nutrie.
“We’ve experienced some really turbulent times over the past six months,” McDowall told a group of Herbalife distributors on one call.
She said that the company had “handcuffed” them, but she promised they could continue their Herbalife business as they moved over to Nutrie. However, Herbalife forbids distributors from working for competing multi-level marketing companies.
McDowall said Nutrie was co-founded by Dahl and Glenn Kirkpatrick, two fellow Canadians she has worked with at Herbalife for 10 years. But Nutrie’s website does not list either man as an owner or a backer.
Neither man returned calls for comment. Nor did McDowall or Nutrie, a limited liability company headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz.
But in a recent e-mail about Nutrie that Dahl sent to Herbalife distributors, he asked recipients not to mention “Glenn or I in any ownership role until well after this is all rolled out.”