| Country | Sales (USD$m) | Growth |
| China | $4,385 | +1% |
| Japan | $1,185 | +2% |
| Korea | $885 | +2% |
| United States | $861 | +5% |
| Russia | $629 | +19% |
| Thailand | $568 | +10% |
| India | $493 | +7% |
| Taiwan | $340 | +8% |
| Malaysia | $263 | +8% |
| Ukraine | $150 | +7% |
source: Amway Europe Leadership Training Seminar 2013
In news out today, Amway India CEO William Pinckney and two company directors, Sanjay Malhotra and Anshu Budhraj, have been arrested, charged, and remanded in custody for 14 days. This continues a pattern of what can only be called police harassment in the Indian states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Details have been hard to come by, but the charges apparently result from 4 complaints lodged against Amway in the Wayanad district of Kerala. Amway had reportedly been aware of, and co-operating with police regarding one charge, but the arrest resulted from three other complaints. According to the Times of India, the known charge was from a 2011 complaint and –
Vishalakshi alleged that Amway agents collected Rs.3.5 lakh from her for products sold by the companies and asked her to add more members to the chain. As she could not add more members, she sought a refund but the agents refused
3.5 lakh rupees is over US$6500!!! I’ve been unable to discover when this offence was alleged to have occurred, but clearly this is pretty bizarre, and if true it’s clear some Amway business owners (including, I would suggest, this woman!) have seriously abused the Amway business model.
Amway was apparently dealing with this issue and had already received “anticipatory bail” for the executives. The current arrests are apparently related to new complaints. And that’s where it get’s really bizarre –
The three complainants — Jafar, T Ashraf and P Hareendran — had alleged that in 2002 Amway India attempted to collect money from them with the intention to deceive them by involving them in a money-chain scheme.
This “offence” allegedly occurred more than a decade ago (!!!) and indicates that someone merely “tried” to collect money and deceive them. Yes, that’s right – three company executives of a multi-billion dollar multi-national award winning company have been arrested and thrown in jail because three people claim that, more than a decade ago, someone tried to recruit them in to Amway, and they believe Amway is illegal and in violation of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme.
Sorry, India, but this is shameful.
Indian contacts have suggested to me that the problem may be that Amway India is not corrupt and refuses to pay the bribes that local officials typically demand. Corruption is, unfortunately, rife in India, with most Indians reporting they have had to pay bribes to officials (including police) in order to get normal tasks completed.
Amway India IBOs should keep the story of Amway Korea in mind. In 1993, David Ussery, general manager of Amway Korea, was arrested, interrogated, and then held in jail for a week, with various allegations made against Amway. Eventually the charges were dismissed, and today, Korea is Amway’s third biggest market. In 2011 the Korean Government named Amway one of the 30 most successful foreign companies in the country.
update: sources tell me the Amway executives have been granted bail
Founders Crown Ambassador William “Bill” Britt has passed away at the age of 81. Britt, the founder and leader of Britt WorldWide, was one of the most successful yet controversial distributors in Amway’s history. Bill and his wife Peggy joined Amway in 1970, ten years after the company began, and built one of the largest Amway businesses in the world. They reached Diamond level in 1973 and Crown Ambassador in 1996. In 2004 they were recognized as Founders Crown Ambassador, FAA 40, one of only 14 Amway distributorships in the world to have reached that level.
The Britts are downline of Founders Crown Ambassador Dexter Yager, and were an integral part of the success and expansion of the “Yager System” in the 70s and 80s. The Britt’s eventually founded their own business support company, Britt WorldWide, which grew around the world, reaching great success particularly in India, where the Britt’s developed a second large Amway business, reaching Crown in 2009.
Their success was not without controversy however. Britt’s firebrand approach, with no apologies for mixing his strong evangelical Christian faith, political beliefs and business attracting devotion from many but criticism from others. In 2004 the Britt organisation was the focus of a Dateline NBC investigation into Quixtar (now Amway North America) and several of his downline distributors were disciplined by Amway as a result.
The Britt’s Amway legacy lives on, with hundreds of Diamonds from around the world in their downline, including Paul & Leslie Miller and Larry & Pam Winters from the United States, India’s Founders Triple Diamonds, Harbhajan Singh & Mohinder Braich and Double Diamonds Kanti & Lata Gala, China’s Founders Crown Ambassador’s Guo-Yuan Du & Ya-Qin Zhu (Matthew Du), England’s Double Diamonds Trevor & Jackie Lowe and Turkey’s Double Diamonds Hatice Firat & Mehmet Muratoglu and Merih & Nilufer Bolukbasi.
Our thoughts are with his wife Peggy and the entire Britt Worldwide family.
The Hindu newspaper in India has today reported on some proposed new guidelines from the Indian Government for State legislation regarding the “Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes” (PCMCS). The PCMCS law is, to say the least, not clear and this lack of clarity has allowed pyramid and other scams to flourish in India.
Unfortunately, critics of the multilevel marketing business model have convinced some in India that it too should be made illegal. Incredibly, news articles even in reputable media talk about how pyramid schemes are banned around the world, and then go on to talk about companies like Amway as if they are pyramid schemes (and thus illegal everywhere). Amway is not banned anywhere. These draft guidelines would do so, however in India –
5. No individual or Company or firm or business association, in any form, shall run a scheme that induces enrolment of new members by offering benefits or commission, by whatever name called, to upline members in the pyramid out of the action or performance like sale or purported sale of goods or services by the downline members.
This guideline, if implemented as law, clearly would ban all multilevel marketing in India, with an outright ban on earning commissions based on sales through agents you recruit and train. I’ve received a copy of the proposed guidelines as well as accompanying background notes and will be posting a series of articles over the next few days. In the meantime, if you’re involved with network marketing in India, you need to get in contact with your local political representatives and ensure they are aware of these guidelines and the damage they’ll do to Indian enterprise and India’s reputation.
The following email sent by Amway to all Emeralds and up in India a couple of weeks ago regarding the situation with Sajeev Nair and MonaVie
Dear Leaders,
Greetings from Amway India !!!!
As you are aware by now, Amway India had its biggest sales month in September’11 when we had Rs.251 crore of sales. With such excitement & momentum, I am not only confident of achieving our Goal of Rs 2500 cr by 2012, but also convinced that we will attain higher GOALS in the years to come.
We have introduced several “Positive Changes” in the business from November 1st that would further fuel our growth & offer a safer future for our ABOs. These revisions have been accepted very well by leadership all around.
With growth, we also attract attention of various entities. One of them can be competing organizations who claim to be ‘Just Like Amway’business opportunities. Amway India & the Direct Selling Industry is poised for huge growth in years to come, which pulls organizations to get a share of this growing market. While we appreciate healthy competition, it is unfortunate that some organizations choose improper & dishonorable methods to grab business & get a foothold in the market. We have reasons to believe that such ‘Copycat Businesses’ with shallow income opportunities have been targeting YOUR line of sponsorship to build THEIR business. They are really not competitors but actually “predators”.
I wanted to take this opportunity to advise you on expected launch of a company in the Direct Selling market in India and what activities are currently taking place openly & surreptitiously, leading up to this launch. Continue reading Amway India letter to distributors
Alticor, Amway’s parent company, has reported record sales of $8.4billion for 2009, a 2.3 percent increase of 2008. Real growth, accounting for currency fluctuations, was 5.9%.
Apart from Amway, the sales figures include revenue from other Alticor concerns such as Amway Hotel Corporation and recent acquisitions like Gurwitch Products and Metagenics, however the bulk of the sales is from the direct selling giant, Amway Corporation.
As noted with last years sales release, Amway is not providing breakdowns of particular markets, however they did note – Continue reading 51 years and Amway continues to grow – $8.4 billion for 2009