FreeLife

Infobox Company
company_name = FreeLife International
company_logo =
company_type = Private
foundation = 1995
location = Phoenix, Arizona
key_people = Ray Faltinsky
Kevin Fournier
industry =
products = Himalayan Goji Juice
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 220
homepage = [http://www.FreeLife.com/ www.FreeLife.com]

FreeLife International is a multi-level marketing company established in 1995 by Ray Faltinsky and Kevin Fournier that supplies nutritional supplements. FreeLife is best known for promoting "Himalayan Goji Juice", made from goji berries.

Products

FreeLife’s product line initially consisted of nutritional supplements, weight loss products, shampoo and personal care products. FreeLife has since changed its product lines and now focuses on a juice made from wolfberry and sold under the product name Himalayan Goji Juice and a newer product named GoChi.cite news | author=Weaver, Clair. | date=June 17 2007 | publisher=Sunday Telegraph | url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21916251-2,00.html | title=Why goji is more fad than fact.]

FreeLife operates as an international multi-level marketing company where sale of a consumer products take place person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location. These products are marketed to customers by independent salespeople who are paid commissions on their sales and the sales of their downline. The company requires those marketing its products to follow certain guidelines set out by the company. [http://www.freelife.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=usa.CID_02_007 The FreeLife Way] , FreeLife.com, retrieved March 12 2008]

History

In 1995, Co-Founders Ray Faltinsky and Kevin Fournier, along with a group of investors including Anson Beard of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter, launched FreeLife International as a direct sales company due to Ray Faltinsky's prior research on that business model. [ [http://corporate.freelife.com/PDF/ray_thesis.pdf Thesis on direct sales business model] , Ray Faltinsky, 1992] As FreeLife grew, it was listed in 2000 in Inc. 500's List of Fastest Growing Businesses. [ [http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2007/company-profile.html?id=2000296 The fastest growing private companies in America] , "Inc.com", for the year 2000, retrieved March 12 2008] FreeLife has since grown to include operations in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines [Asia Pulse. (October 11 2004) " [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go1523/is_200410/ai_n6483895 US Juice firm takes a foothold in the Philippines.] "] , Puerto Rico, Singapore, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin/St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thailand [Rungfapaisarn, Kwanchai. (September 16 2006) The Nation " [http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/16/business/business_30013757.php Health drink in direct-marketing debut.] "] , Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States.

FreeLife's former spokesperson, Earl Mindell, has made several unfounded claims about health benefits of the company's brand of goji juice, including that it has anti-cancer and anti-aging properties.cite web|url=http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2189422&page=1 |title=Goji: Health Elixir or Pricey Juice? |publisher=ABC News |first=Brittany |last=Oat |date=July 14, 2006 |accessdate = 2007-09-24 ] Mindell's involvement with FreeLife was subject of a CBC hidden camera investigation in January 2007, [ [http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/01/goji.html CBC's Hidden Camera Investigation on Goji Juice Claims] ] questioning the unsupported anti-cancer properties of Himalayan Goji Juice and validity of Mindell's PhD qualification which was later proved invalid and removed from Mindell's description on the FreeLife website.

Human pilot study

In May 2008, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine published a study of the effects FreeLife’s GoChi juice on healthy adults. The authors concluded that daily consumption of GoChi for 14 days increased subjective feelings of general well-being, neurological, psychological and gastrointestinal functions. [ [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18447631 A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical study of the general effects of a standardized Lycium barbarum (Goji) Juice, GoChi.] ]

ee also

*Herbal supplements multi-level marketing

References

External links

* [http://www.freelife.com/ FreeLife Official website]