Since it took over the throne from Avon in 2012, Amway has been the world’s largest direct selling enterprise. That year, Amway’s global sales reached $11.3 billion. This increased by 4.4% in 2013 to $11.8 billion and then dropped by 8% in 2014 to $10.8 billion. That was even lower than 2012’s figure. Even after this, Amway kept its leadership in the industry with sales still 28% more than its closest rival, Avon.
Amway’s 10-year growth between the 2004-2014 period has been 68% with 5.1% average year-over-year growth in the last five years.
This week we will take a little closer look at Amway’s 2014…
Last year, 43% of Amway’s revenue was generated by its nutritional products. This was followed by beauty (25%), durables (19%), home care (8%), and others (5%).
Among these, Amway labels three of its brands as “power brands”, namely Nutrilite, Artistry, and eSpring. Nutrilite and eSpring are known to be the leader brands in their categories globally. Artistry on the other hand, is among world’s top five highest-selling skin care brands.
As of end-2014, Amway had 17 manufacturing and processing plants all over the world. The total number of its other establishments like experience centers, plazas and distribution centers exceeded 700. Alongside with these, Amway also owned and operated over 6,400 acres of certified organic farmland in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil
Amway’s global operations have been divided into four regions: Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe-India-Africa, and China. The top 10 markets for Amway in 2014 were China, South Korea, Japan, United States, Thailand, Russia, Taiwan, India, Malaysia and Ukraine. For the overall sales decrease in 2014, company blamed lower revenues in China and fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates.
Amway management was especially happy with the growths achieved in some of its most mature markets like Korea and Taiwan. In Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Chile, Panama, Italy and Spain, there were double-digit percentage growth performances in local currency sales.
Towards the end of 2014, the Chair at the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) was passed to Amway President Doug DeVos. He assumed the role of Chairman from Alessandro Carlucci, former CEO of Natura. DeVos was elected for this role for a three-year term.
Whether Amway will increase its sales in 2015 as compared to last year, we don’t know yet. However, it is very unlikely that it will leave the global leadership position.
Please click here and here for more detailed information on Amway’s 2014.