Direct-selling company Amway is stepping up focus on India and has identified it as its priority market for growth and investments besides China and the USA. The company believes that over the next few years the India business has the potential to grow by nearly ten times.
Milind Pant, Global CEO, Amway told BusinessLine , “India for us is now among the top three priority markets in terms of driving Amway’s next phase of growth and investments. When we look at our plans between now and 2030, we believe that India, China and the US will provide us with the highest growth rates. And so we will prioritise our investments in these three markets be it in terms of R&D or strengthening our digital capabilities.”
Pant took charge of the overall leadership of the company in 2019 as the first non-family global CEO for Amway and is among the rising number of Indian-origin or Indian CEOs who are heading global operations for various companies.
10x growth expected
“We believe the long-term potential of the India business, currently at about ₹2,000 crore, will scale up by nearly ten times and grow to about ₹20,000 crore. Will that happen in ten years or fifteen years or earlier...we will have to see,” he added.
He added that India is also a potential market to “drive work in digital innovations and research” to meet Amway’s global business needs.
This year the company has ramped up investments in the R&D space in India with four R&D labs in Gurgaon, Chennai, Bengaluru and Madurai. Earlier this year, the company had said it would invest about ₹170 crore in the next 2-3 years to boost R&D, manufacturing automation, innovation & science and digital capabilities in India.
Responding to a query on the Omicron threat, Pant said that while challenges will continue, Amway is far more resilient with learnings of the past two years since the pandemic outbreak.
Two global mega-trends
“We have benefited from two mega-trends across the globe. The rise of the gig economy and micro-entrepreneurship, especially with women and young millennials looking for supplemental incomes . Secondly, with consumers' growing focus towards health and nutrition, micro-entrepreneurs have adapted to provide wellness solutions to their communities and we will continue to invest in products and digital solutions to help them grow,” he added.
Amway is eyeing global contribution of 65 per cent from the nutrition category to drive business growth by 2024, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Pant added that despite the challenges due to the pandemic, the company’s India business grew in 2020 and 2021.
Nearly 70 per cent of Amway India’s sales now come through the online platform from just about 30 per cent two years ago. Pant said that adoption of digital commerce has been a key focus for the company globally during the pandemic times.