Fast Fact: We’re global with distribution in more than 100 countries and territories

Amway’s footprint today spans more than 100 countries and territories. But it wasn’t always this way. When the company was founded in 1959, nobody could have imagined how successful the company would become.

Humble beginnings
Amway Co-Founders Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos started the business from a basement in the small town of Ada, Michigan. They wanted to create a business would offer people opportunity and reduce reliance on working for someone else. It was based on the principles of free enterprise: the more you work, the more you could make.

They started with one product – Liquid Organic Cleaner, a non-toxic, biodegradable multi-purpose cleaning solution. Amway Independent Business Owners began to sell the product to their friends and family. These people loved the product, and also wanted to make money and sell products to their friends and family.

International expansion
As Jay and Rich added more products to the company, international interest began to grow. In 1962, Amway opened its first international office in London, Ontario, Canada, sparking an ongoing global expansion. The company opened its first overseas office in Sydney, Australia in 1971, and its first Asian market (Hong Kong) soon after.

A global business
Today, Amway is the world’s largest direct selling company.* It has expanded across six continents with a presence that stretches from South Africa to Thailand and England to Australia. Its millions of Amway Business Owners are from all corners of the world.

*Direct Selling News, ranked based on 2017 sales

Fast Fact: 27% of IBOs made more than their sponsor in NA in 2016

One of the most appealing aspects of the Amway™ business model is that the more you work, the more money you can make – and you can earn more than the person who sponsored you.

As with any sales business, the income you earn with Amway is based on successful efforts resulting in product sales. The more time and effort you put into the business, the more money you can make.

Amway’s income structure is not top down. You have the potential to earn a higher income than your sponsor and anyone else who started their business before you.

While your sponsor can earn a bonus based on the amount of product their group sells collectively, they’re not taking profits away from you.

In the traditional business structure, your manager might receive an annual bonus based on the success of his/her team – but this doesn’t affect your bonus. With Amway, it’s similar. However, the difference is you’re able to earn a higher bonus than your sponsor because bonuses are based on sales volume.

On average, 27% of Amway Independent Business Owners (IBOs) actually made MORE than their sponsor!

IBOs can also make more money by building a team. By doing so, you’ll earn a bonus based on their collective sales volume, too.

Amway rewards people with group sales bonuses for their hard work in building and mentoring teams. Some IBOs have teams of 50 to 100 people and it’s not easy to help each teammate individually. However, building a team can be a fulfilling way to make new friends and grow your business at the same time.

Fast Fact: Amway gives back through 4.5 million IBO and employee combined volunteer hours and $315 million donated worldwide since 2003

From the beginning, Amway has always made it a priority to support the local communities in which we and Independent Business Owners (IBOs) operate. While we’re a global company, we think and act locally. When it comes to our corporate citizenship efforts, volunteer work and charitable giving, we strongly support the communities where we live and work.

Globally, Amway employees have supported more than 14.5 million people through charitable contributions exceeding $315 million and 4.5 million volunteer hours since 2003.

In North America, Amway focuses its giving and volunteerism with three organizations - Easterseals, US Dream Academy and the Nutrilite™ Power of 5 Campaign.

Easterseals
Since 1983, Amway, IBOs and employees have supported Easterseals to provide services for people and families with disabilities through special events and generous giving campaigns, in addition to product donations and volunteer hours. Over three decades, the Amway family has raised more than $30 million for the organization. In addition, Amway employees and IBOs have supported with key community events like Walk With Me, Over the Edge and Power of Hope. And, IBOs and Amway employees serve on local, state and regional Easterseals boards of directors.

As America’s largest nonprofit health care organization, Easterseals serves more than 1.4 million people each year, helping the one in four Americans living with disability today.

Easterseals provides inclusive childcare, medical rehabilitation and autism services for young children and their families; job training and coaching, employment placement and transportation services for adults with disabilities, including veterans; adult day services and employment opportunities for older adults – in addition to a variety of additional services for people of all ages including mental health and recovery programs, assistive technology, camp and recreation, caregiving support including respite – and much more.

U.S. Dream Academy
Amway and IBOs have supported the U.S. Dream Academy for more than a decade.

The U.S. Dream Academy, founded in 1998, is a national after-school program that aims to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration by inspiring and elevating children of incarcerated parents and vulnerable young people through high performance relationships with caring adults. The U.S. Dream Academy offers after-school and mentoring programs in seven U.S. cities that help students achieve their potential through skill and character-building activities and initiatives. U.S. Dream Academy currently has programs in Baltimore, Houston, Indianapolis, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Washington D.C., and will add a program in San Bernardino, California, in 2019.
In addition to sponsoring the U.S. Dream Academy’s annual gala and other programs, Amway and IBOs give time, serve on the U.S. Dream Academy board of directors and provide other support to the organization’s mission.

In 2018 Amway sponsored a contest for U.S. Dream Academy “Dream Kids” to design packaging for XS™ Energy Gum in conjunction with the Academy’s 20th anniversary.

“We were asking ourselves, ‘How can we help some of the Dream Kids develop their skills and help them see the potential of their dreams?” said Jim Ayres, managing director for Amway North America and a Dream Academy board member.

Power of 5
Since 2014, the Nutrilite Power of 5 Campaign has helped tens of thousands of malnourished children and their families by improving access to nutrients critical to brain development during the first five years of life. The World Health Organization reports that 155 million children suffer from malnourishment, leading to 3.1 million deaths each year.

As a leader in nutrition, Amway has developed Nutrilite Little Bits™, a micronutrient supplement for malnourished children age 6 months to 5 years old. When taken daily, Nutrilite Little Bits helps these children get the nutrients they need to grow and develop.

Through partnerships with 24 NGOs and humanitarian groups, Nutrilite Little Bits is now distributed to families of malnourished children in 15 different countries.

Amway’s goal is to provide a daily serving Nutrilite Little Bits to more than 500,000 malnourished children by the end of 2019.

†Walk With Me® is a registered trademark of Easter Seals, Inc.

Fast Fact: Constantly researching standards and processes with our 118 acres of research farmland

In 2015, Amway opened the Amway Botanical Research Center (ABRC) in Wuxi, China. West of Shanghai, the ABRC is situated on 84-acres of organic farmland in rural China – land that was used as rice fields for generations. It took more than two years and thousands of yards of topsoil and compost to rework the land to optimal growing conditions -- all without introducing harsh chemicals to keep up with Amway’s strict organic farming standards.

Old meets new
Amway scientists at the $13 million research farm and R&D center use western technology to explore the effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine plants, including goji berry and chrysanthemum, for potential integration into future nutrition and beauty products.

The R&D center includes an advanced laboratory and large greenhouse and is used for research on soil nutrients, plant physiology, extract quality standards and processes.

“Our Nutrilite™ brand of vitamins and dietary supplements were first formulated after the brand’s founder, Carl Rehnborg, observed how the use of plants and botanicals in China promoted optimal health and natural balance,” said George Calvert, Amway’s chief supply chain officer. “The ABRC is our effort to research and understand Chinese botanicals to a greater extent– using the most advanced technology and scientific practices – and integrate the findings into our products.”

Scientific breakthroughs
While the work is just beginning, the ABRC has already put Amway on the map with a scientific breakthrough in 2017. In partnership with the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMM), the ARBC for the first time completed the whole genome of plant from the Genus Chrysanthemum.

To help put this groundbreaking work in perspective, the R&D team discovered that the chrysanthemum indicum has about three billion DNA base pairs – almost the size of the human genome. Through the collaboration and use of nanopore technology, Amway scientists successfully identified 101,745 putative genes in the plant’s genome.

It may sound complicated, but the research will help scientists understand how this unique plant can benefit the human body. It’s innovations like these that will have a significant impact on future studies of botanicals at Amway.