Amway sees India as one of top 3 priority mkts, aims scaling up Indian biz to 20K cr in long term
- IBEF
- December 23, 2021
Amway, one the world's largest direct selling company, has high hopes for India, aiming to grow its business to Rs. 20,000 crores (US$ 2.65 billion) in the long run after naming India as one of its top three global priority markets, alongside the United States and China, according to its global CEO Milind Pant.
The company, which will celebrate 25 years of operations in the country in the next two years, believes it can grow its business in the country ten times faster than it is now, and that it will not take another 25 years to do so.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated two trends: people, particularly women and youth, turning towards micro-entrepreneurship for additional income across the country, especially in smaller towns, and a greater interest on holistic wellbeing, both of which bode well for Amway.
From its (almost) 25-year existence in India, Amway believes it is now able to integrate these two trends of micro entrepreneurs giving health solutions through the communities that they're creating.
"This is the conversation we're having with the India team about how we take the India business from a 2,000 crore (US$ 265 million) business today to a 20,000 crore (US$ 2.65 billion) business over the long run," he added.
When quizzed on how long it will take Amway to achieve that, Pant said "As soon as Amway can accomplish it." "I don't think we'll need 25 years to get there... In the year 2020, we've grown. We grew in 2021, and we're certain that we'll continue to grow in 2022 and beyond, and we'll be worth 20,000 crores (US$ 2.65 billion) in less than 25 years."
"Our India business has 10 times the potential that it has," he remarked, with confidence. "This can be benchmarked with any of our successful markets in Asia, like Thailand, China, or Korea, where our businesses have similar scale."
Pant believes that when the company grows, the number of its partners will expand dramatically as well.
"In India, there are 5 lakh micro enterprises. That number needs to expand tenfold to provide chance to another 4.5 million to 5 million people " he stated.
When asked about the investments needed to attain said scale, he responded, "We have been ahead of the curve in our investments in India, and we will continue to be ahead of the curve as such. Amid the pandemic, we recently invested in four new R&D labs in India, spread across various locations in India."
Amway has already pledged a Rs. 1,000 crore (US$ 132.4 million) investment in India, with 600 crores (US$ 79.4 million) going towards manufacturing and 170 crores (US$ 22.5 million) earmarked for R&D, manufacturing automation, and innovation over the next two to three years.
Pant, speaking about how Amway India has embraced digitization in the wake of shifting consumer behavioral patterns brought on by the pandemic, said that two years ago there was a digitization gap between the US, China, and India, particularly between China and India, but now the distance was not much.
He noted that online sales in India had increased to 70% of total sales from around 30% two years ago, leading credence to his digitization comment
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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