Amway to invest ₹400 crore in India over 5 years

Amway, the largest player in India’s ₹7,500 crore direct-selling market, will invest ₹400 crore to strengthen its product portfolio and expand through “express” stores in the next five years, taking its total investment in India to over ₹1,000 crore.

The company has faced tough times in India. In 2014, the then CEO, William Pinckney, was arrested twice following complaints over its trading model. But with the new government norms on regulating direct selling firms last month, Amway believes the future is bright.

“Our target is to have India feature in the top three markets for Amway. We are confident of achieving this in the next 4-5 years,” said Anshu Budhraja, general manager, Amway India.

It is targeting an annual revenue of ₹6,000 crore in India by 2025 from about ₹1,800 crore in 2014-15.

Amway sells 130 products for nutrition, beauty, home and personal care in India and plans to expand its product range in these categories. It will also foray into the consumer durables segment this year with the launch of cookware in India. Globally, Amway also sells other durables like water and air purifiers.

Moreover, it will launch express pick-and-pay stores that will be similar to ‘mini shopping centres’ for customers and distributors by the end of 2018.

“We are converting most of our real estate across the country into consumer stores. We will try to open 50 stores in the top 20 cities in India,” said Budhraja.

Amway is also strengthening e-commerce set-up through its website, which already contributes to 35% of its revenue.