Amway India targets double digit growth

Amway India, the country's leading direct marketing company, has set a growth target of over 10 per cent for 2005-06 fiscal (September 1-August 31). Its turnover has gone up to Rs 633 crore in 04-05 from Rs 91 crore in 1998-99.

Over a period of next 12 months, Amway India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the $6.4 billion Alticor Inc, one of the largest direct selling companies in the world, will launch 14 new products. Most of them will be in the nutrition & wellness and cosmetics categories. It will launch shortly a weight management product, existing in many other countries.

Announcing this at a press conference here, Amway India director, legal & corporate affairs Sanker Parameswaran said: "Last year has been a good year for Amway India. Our turnover is a reflection of increased acceptance of Amway's independent business opportunity and its world class products."

Outlining plans for 2005-06 fiscal, he said, "We have outlined a twin-track strategy to drive growth. On the one hand, we will launch 14 new products and on the other, increase our distributor base by at least 20 per cent. In addition, we will be strengthening our home delivery network and take our total reach to 2,000 cities and towns by the end of the fiscal year."

Worldwide, Amway is known as a health and beauty company. Amway India is moving in the same direction. The cosmetics category alone today contributes over 10 per cent of the total turnover. Its nutrition and wellness brand, Nutralite has emerged as the single largest category, contributing more than 50 per cent to the total turnover.

Amway India has today built a network of 48 offices and 39 city warehouses across the country covering 1,600 towns through its distribution and home delivery network set up with the support of independent logistics partners. It has over 4.5 lakh active business owners.

Almost 85 per cent of the products sold by the Delhi headquartered company, are now manufactured within the country through five third-party contract manufacturers. Its direct selling industry is today a Rs 2,700 crore industry, with 13.73 lakh people involved in direct selling as independent business. This is expected to register a 25 per cent growth over the next three years, added a company official.