Amway - Sales Figures">
Whenever Amway releases it's sales figures, it is always at estimated retail price. It is not the revenue that Amway receives from selling these products to it's distributors. If you go to Time Warner's Web-site you will find that Hoover's Online reports Amway's 1996 revenues at about 27% less than the estimated retail price. You can also check out Forbes Magazine at www.forbes.com and you will see that the revenues that they report for Amway's 1997 revenues show only a 19% difference.
It should also be noted that much of the growth that Amway has experienced over the past fifteen years has been through expansion into foreign markets. From Amway's press releases, they have stated that about 70% of their sales for the last two fiscal years have come from these foreign markets.
In the table below you will find a history of Amway's sales figures, at estimated suggested retail. The Total Number count is the number of foreign markets that Amway was open during that year. On the far right, are the countries that they opened up in during the calendar year. Please note that the sales figures are reported at the end of Amway's fiscal year, which is Aug 31.
| Year | Sales | Total Number | Countries opened during the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 500,000 | 0 | Opened in the U.S. |
| 1962 | ??? | 1 | Canada |
| 1963 | 21 million | 1 | none |
| 1971 | 165 million | 2 | Australia |
| 1972 | 180 million | 2 | none |
| 1973 | 210 million | 3 | United Kingdon |
| 1974 | 230 million | 4 | Hong Kong |
| 1975 | 250 million | 5 | Germany |
| 1976 | 300 million | 6 | France |
| 1977 | 375 million | 6 | none |
| 1978 | 500 million | 7 | Netherlands |
| 1979 | 800 million | 8 | Japan |
| 1980 | 1.1 billion | 10 | Belgium, Switzerland |
| 1981 | 1.4 billion | 10 | none |
| 1982 | 1.5 billion | 11 | Taiwan |
| 1983 | 1.13 billion | 11 | none |
| 1984 | 1.2 billion | 11 | none |
| 1985 | 1.2 billion | 15 | Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Panama |
| 1986 | 1.3 billion | 17 | Malaysia,Spain |
| 1987 | 1.5 billion | 19 | Guatemala, Thailand |
| 1988 | 1.8 billion | 19 | none |
| 1989 | 1.9 billion | 19 | none |
| 1990 | 2.2 billion | 20 | Mexico |
| 1991 | 3.0 billion | 23 | Brazil, Hungary, Korea |
| 1992 | 3.9 billion | 27 | Brunei, Indonesia, Poland, Portugal |
| 1993 | 4.5 billion | 28 | Argentina |
| 1994 | 5.3 billion | 31 | Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey |
| 1995 | 6.3 billion | 37 | Chile, El Salvador, Slovenia, Uruguay, China, Honduras |
| 1996 | 6.8 billion | 40 | Costa Rica, Columbia, Greece |
| 1997 | 7.0 billion | 43 | Phillipines, South Africa, Romania |
For fiscal year 1997, Amway contributed the small increase in sales (3%) to "the negative impact of $430 million from foreign currency translation against a stronger U.S. dollar this fiscal year"
For fiscal years 1995 and 1996, Amway mentioned that North America accounted for approximately 30% of sales. In this years press release they said "And it's gratifying to note that our 'oldest' market, North America, continued its dominance as a sales leader among Amway worldwide markets."
It makes me wonder if this is ama-speak for sales went down in the US?
