“Amway: 50 Years of Helping People Live Better Lives” shares Amway’s history and a glimpse at its future through words, pictures, interactive displays, and artifacts. This is the museum’s first Amway exhibit, and includes many items that have never been on display before.
Like the Amway Flyer wagon we sold in the ’60s. Or a recreation of the bomb shelter Amway marketed during the Cold War era.
The exhibit will be open to the public through November 2010.
It’s a long way from Kiev to Ada, Michigan. But once Ukranian journalists got here for a press visit and the conversation about the global economy got going, distance didn’t seem to matter.
Following their August visit, Delo, a daily business newspaper, printed an interview with Doug DeVos on how distributors have – and always will – remain central to our business. Monthly magazine Tvoye Zdorovye, translated as “Your Health,” talked with Doug as part of a larger story on business ethics, noting that we were environmentally-focused before it became a “fashionable marketing term.” And finally, in an S Toboy article on American women’s beauty secrets, our Artistry and Nutrilite brands were mentioned.
We’ve got great stories to tell. Our press visits are just one way we do it.
On November 9, 1959, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel launched their latest business venture here in Ada, Michigan. Before founding Amway, Jay and Rich had tried their hand at businesses ranging from a drive-in restaurant to a flying school to an import business.
But the enterprise that had legs was Amway.
Since Amway’s founding, we’ve grown from a small band of entrepreneurs in the states to more than three million business owners in more than 80 countries and territories. We offer health and beauty brands known and loved around the world. And while Jay and Rich started with a skeleton crew to support their new business, today we boast 13,000 employees worldwide.
There’s no big celebration planned at our world headquarters in Ada today. We’ve been celebrating all year long with our distributors all around the world.
We’re spending Amway’s 50th anniversary just as Rich and Jay spent their first day on the job 50 years ago - at work, helping distributors succeed through their Amway businesses.
It’s only natural that we have baseball on our minds this week.
But every week, we’re thinking Twitter. We’ve seen people use it to find each other during disasters, raise millions, and spread urgent news around the globe.
We Tweet to engage with people interested in our business opportunity and product brands — our Amway Business Owners, media, customers, and sometimes, critics.
You’ll find enough Amway handles on Twitter to load the bases at several ballparks, but here’s our official line-up:
Today Orlando community leaders and Orlando Magic officials ”topped off” the Amway Center currently under construction in Orlando, Florida.
By hoisting the final beam in place, workers placed the roof on what some are already calling the greenest arena in the country and the first NBA facility to be LEED certified when it opens in late 2010.
Today, it’s raising the roof. Next fall the Amway Center will raise the bar as one of the nation’s premier sports and entertainment facilities and green public buildings.
Direct selling is a multi-billion dollar industry involving tens of millions of people worldwide.
How big and how many? Here’s a snapshot of direct selling, by the numbers:
$113 billion - global retail sales through direct sellers in U.S. dollars, according to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations. $29.6 billion - retail sales through direct sellers last year in the U.S., the world’s biggest market for direct selling. 66 million - the number of direct selling reps worldwide - 15.1 million in the U.S. alone. 68 - direct selling companies around the world with more than $100 million in sales.
58 - the average age of the top 10 direct selling companies worldwide (none of the top 10 have been in business fewer than 25 years; Amway, the world’s second largest direct seller, turns 50 this year.)
42 - direct selling companies selling more than $100 million annually that are based in the U.S. 11 - companies that have sales of $1 billion or more.
It all adds up to a thriving global industry and opportunity for millions worldwide.
When Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos started Amway 50 years ago, their offices were in an old garage in Ada, Michigan. 
You’ll find enough Amway handles on Twitter to load the bases at several ballparks, but here’s our official line-up:
