Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, lifelong friends and business partners, founded the Ja-Ri Corporation to import wood products from South America in 1949.
After they were introduced to Nutrilite the same year they changed the focus of their new company to be a Nutrilite distributor.
Nutrilite offered its distributors a commission on every product sold, as well as a commission on each product sold by a new distributor that was recruited from an existing distributor. This is called multi-level marketing.
By 1958 DeVos and Van Andel had built a network of 5,000 distributors.
In 1959, amid concerns about the future of Nutrilite, they along with some of their top distributors formed the American Way Association to represent the distributors and look for additional products to market.
Their first product was an organic cleaner called Frisk. Subsequently they formed Amway Sales Corporation to procure and inventory products, as well as sales and marketing, and Amway Services Corporation to handle insurance and other benefits for distributors.
In 1964 Amway Corporation was formed by the merger of Amway Sales Corporation, Amway Services Corporation, and Amway Manufacturing Corporation.
Amway expanded to Australia in 1971, Europe in 1973, parts of Asia in 1974, Japan in 1979, Latin America in 1985, China in 1995, Africa in 1997, India in 1998, and Russia in 2005.
Today Amway manufactures over 450 products. Amway is #28 on the Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies, has 14,000 employees, and had $9.2 billion in revenue in 2011.
AmwayJay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, lifelong friends and business partners, founded the Ja-Ri Corporation to import wood products from South America in 1949.
After they were introduced to Nutrilite the same year they changed the focus of their new company to be a Nutrilite distributor.
Nutrilite offered its distributors a commission on every product sold, as well as a commission on each product sold by a new distributor that was recruited from an existing distributor. This is called multi-level marketing.
History
By 1958 DeVos and Van Andel had built a network of 5,000 distributors.
In 1959, amid concerns about the future of Nutrilite, they along with some of their top distributors formed the American Way Association to represent the distributors and look for additional products to market.
Their first product was an organic cleaner called Frisk. Subsequently they formed Amway Sales Corporation to procure and inventory products, as well as sales and marketing, and Amway Services Corporation to handle insurance and other benefits for distributors.
In 1964 Amway Corporation was formed by the merger of Amway Sales Corporation, Amway Services Corporation, and Amway Manufacturing Corporation.
Amway expanded to Australia in 1971, Europe in 1973, parts of Asia in 1974, Japan in 1979, Latin America in 1985, China in 1995, Africa in 1997, India in 1998, and Russia in 2005.
Today Amway manufactures over 450 products. Amway is #28 on the Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies, has 14,000 employees, and had $9.2 billion in revenue in 2011.