Amway to hike prices across categories

Amway India, a direct selling FMCG company, has said it will increase the prices of all its products by 3-5 per cent early next month.

William Pinckney, managing director, Amway India Enterprises, said, “This price increase has been long due for us as we had not increased our prices in the last three years.”

The company may also introduce new business models where it will associate itself with health clubs, gyms and beauty salons for sales of its products. Earlier this month it had also launched its e-commerce portal.

In the last 10 years of its presence in India, the company has built a distribution network of 4.5 lakh active business owners. However, despite such a huge direct selling presence, “There is still a gap between the business owners and our consumers as they are not gaining easy accessibility to purchase our brands,” according to Pinckney.

However, he cautioned, “We would not like to bypass our direct selling channel and disrupt a business model that has been successful for the last 100 years,” he added.

Despite a market slowdown, the company is looking at a business growth of 40 per cent every year. “Our target is to be a Rs 2,500 crore company by 2012 up from Rs 1,000 crore for the financial year-ending December 2008,” he added.