OREANDA-NEWS. On 10 March 2009 Amway, a local Russian branch of an international beauty & health company Amway Corporation, announced the 2008 year results of work.

The sales of Amway Russia showed a continuous stable high growth in 2008 – 39% in US Dollars - USD 604 mln. against USD  435 mln. in 2007. The total score of 2008 is six times more than those of 2005.

A cosmetic brand ARTISTRY became an absolute growth leader. The sales volume of the brand has been increased by 64.8% till USD  134.5 mln. (against USD  81.6 mln. in 2007), this amounts to 22.3% of the total turnover of the company (against 18.8% the year before).

Home care products keep on holding the first place in the sales structure of Amway Russia in 2008 - USD  206.2 mln., it is 39 % more than in 2007 (USD  148.4), this amounts to 34.2% of the total turnover of the company. The sales volume of Nutrilite food supplements has been increased by 56 % and accounts to USD  48.4 mln. (against USD  31.1 in 2007).

"2008 was a year of growth for Amway and it continued a four-year tradition of strengthening of Company’s position on the Russian market. By sales volume Amway Russia has come out on top in Europe and taken the fifth place of all the markets in which the Amway Corp. is presented (more than 80 countries around the world)", - said Richard Stevens, General Director OOO Amway.

 High growth rates are also typical for the parent corporation of Amway Corp., Alticor Inc. Annual sales of the corporation in 2008 amounted to 8.2 billion U.S. dollars, which is 15% higher than the results of 2007.

 Total investments OOO Amway in 2008 were amounted to approximately USD  2.5 million.  The bulk of funding went to the opening of two new Business Support Centers (BSC, a kind of shopping centers) in Irkutsk and Kazan, and for upgrading the existing trading facilities in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. In late 2008 a new pilot project was launched, a new retail outlet – NUTRILITE shop in Voronezh, which is designed for serving of Amway Independent Entrepreneurs (AIEs) as well as all other customers.

Currently there are 13 Amway BSCs in Russia, three of them are in Moscow, one in Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Kazan and Irkutsk.

In 2008 Amway has continued to actively invest in the development of theoretical knowledge and practical skills of AIE to make them more familiar with the properties of the products, marketing characteristics, as well as the basics of building business in Russia. In 2008, a group of Amway trainers conducted over 2 thousands of free training in all regions of Russia, which were attended by a total of more than 300 thousands of AIEs. As of December 2008 the total number of AIEs in Russia counted more than 1 050 000 of people.

 In addition to BSCs, Company’s infrastructure is composed of 4 logistic centers in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don and Khabarovsk owned by a subsidiary company "Access Business Group International".

In 2008, a number of changes were introduced to improve the quality of assembly and delivery of consolidated orders. In particular, the territories of the storage facilities in Novosibirsk and Rostov-on-Don were reconstructed and expanded. In Moscow, a preparatory work for new Kulon-Istra logistic center has been completed. The center is going to operate a modern conveyor system for assembling orders, which differs from the existing by larger capacity systems of automated control and ease of use. Since the beginning of 2008 the number of cities in Russia reached on a permanent system of direct delivery of consolidated orders for the AIEs has increased from 1800 to 2000. Since the market opening the direct delivery of orders has been implemented in over 4500 cities and settlements of Russia. The time for targeted delivery of consolidated orders ranges from 2 to 7 days.

 As of January 2009 OOO Amway staff contains of about 630 people. In 2008, the association of recruitment agencies and "Personnel management" magazine ranked Amway as "the Best Employer of the Year".

In 2009, Amway Russia intends to increase sales by at least 10% and to invest about USD  2 million to the development of regional infrastructure. The bulk of these funds will be directed to the relocation of one of BSCs in Moscow and the BSC in Khabarovsk in new comfortable rooms, as well as renovation of the BSC in Yekaterinburg according to the new standards.

In the marketing field a number of promising new products and brands are planned to launch on the market in the current year. Premium class cosmetic line Artistry will be added by about thirty, and the food supplements line Nutrilite - by at least twenty new product entries. The company plans to bring to market a new premium-class dishes in 2009 as well.