Amway United Kingdom & the Republic of Ireland went through a tough time a few years ago with an investigation by the UK government (ultimately dismissed) . The company halted all sponsoring during the investigation, yet millions of pounds of Amway products continued to be bought and sold, and leaders all the way up to Diamond continued to qualify. Sponsoring renewed several years ago, along with a slightly modified business model that requires, amongst another things, Amway Business owners to have a certain amount of registered customer sales before they’re allowed to sponsor and to earn bonuses and rebates. The latest income disclosure indicates the model appears to be working well. This years figures (for October 2011 to September 2012) are below, along with the same data for the previous two years.

Retail Consultants can purchase and sell Amway products, but are not yet allowed to sponsor

Certified Retail Consultants are Retail Consultants that have developed at least 5 customers and €125 in sales, completed an online course, and are now able to sponsor.

Business Consultants have reached the top of bonus scale. If their business also has a structure that reaches minimum income level requirements, they qualify as Platinums.

CVR is Customer Volume Rebate. It includes the standard Amway volume rebate plus retail margin, which (unlike in most other Amway markets) is collected by Amway and then rebated to those who qualify.

That’s a more than doubling of registered consultants in just two years, and based on the # earning bonuses and the averages somewhere near a 50% increase in sales. One of the most vocal European critics of Amway and multilevel marketing is a man by the name of David Brear. His entire argument is based on his opinion that Amway’s products are “unsellable”. If we look at the figures above, each of those Certified Retail Consultants had to have a minimum of 5 clients in order to earn a CVR in any given month, which means they alone represent, at a bare minimum, over 43000 Amway customers and €10-15 million in retail customer sales in the UK & ROI. Many of the retail consultants will of course also be developing customers and making retail sales, as are the Business Consultants. It’s also interesting to note that at least one Retail Consultant earned straight retail sales commissions for a month of nearly €1900 (over US$2500)

As is usually the case, the beliefs of Amway’s critics just doesn’t stand up to the facts.