Amway expects steady growth

PETALING JAYA: Amway (Malaysia) Holding Bhd expects to maintain its high single-digit revenue growth and net profit in its current financial year, said managing director Low Han Kee.

The leading multi-level marketing multinational posted a net profit of RM18.3mil for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2010, compared with RM16.3mil in the corresponding period a year earlier.



For the full financial year (FY10), net profit rose 8.1% to RM78.3mil from RM72.4mil previously. FY10 revenue stood at RM719.4mil, up 8.4% from RM663.9mil in FY09.

“This (was) another record year for Amway, achieving growth in 31 out of 34 years of operations in Malaysia.

“It proves that our key initiatives have worked well,” he told reporters yesterday after the launch of Amway's RM7mil brand experience centre at its RM100mil new headquarters.

Low said the brand experience centre would support Amway's 221,000 local distributors by providing a conducive environment for product knowledge, human resource training and also helped to strengthen distributors' confidence and rapport with their customers.

Amway Corp executive vice-president Jim Payne said the brand experience centre in Malaysia was the fifth largest in terms of size and the most technologically advanced centre among Amway's current 40 brand experience centres globally.

On the changing landscape for the multi-level direct selling sector, Payne said the advent of various social media such as Facebook, Tweeter and others presented opportunities for Amway to enhance its front-end and back-end multi-level marketing via these channels.

“We embrace such innovations and continue to invested in new technology to remain competitive,” he said, adding that Amway Corp had over the years invested about US$500mil in new technology.

Low also said it was interesting to note that around 50% of Amway's current revenue was achieved via the Internet.

On other challenges, he said maintaining a strong distributor workforce was important. “Currently about 55% of our distributors are below 35 years of age,” he said. Amway has over 250 products marketed in over 80 countries. In Malaysia to date, Amway has 15 shops including a one-stop shop facility at its headquarters.

Amway declared a total dividend of 66 sen net per share or net yield of 8.1% for FY10.

Globally Amway Corp posted revenue of US$9.3bil last year.

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