From Ada to Guangzhou, Amway Invests More than $300 Million in Global Manufacturing Expansion

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Riding the wave of seven years of continuous growth, nutritional and personal care giant Amway, a division of privately owned Alticor (Ada, Michigan), is upping its research and production capacity across the globe. Long considered one of the most successful direct sale marketing companies, Amway has $335 million worth of active capital projects in various stages of planning.

Coming off a record year of sales reaching $11.3 billion in 2012, Amway wants to assure customers that it's prepared to serve the emerging markets that are bolstering its bottom line in a big way. The company's top 10 markets--China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and the U.S.--all saw increased sales for the first time in two decades. Columbia, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela all went on to deliver double-digit increases.

In support of its global expansion plan, China is on tap for a $75 million manufacturing plant to be complete in 2016. This will be Amway's second facility in Guangzhou.

Later this year, the company expects to launch construction in Tamil Nadu, India, on a $95 million manufacturing plant. Plans are in the works for yet another production site in Vietnam.

Not forgetting its own roots in the small town of Ada, Michigan, or for that matter, the U.S., Amway has a number of projects already in construction. In Ada, the company is adding an $81 million nutrition and soft gel facility at its existing site on Spaulding Avenue. That project is scheduled to be completed early next year. Another $24 million was recently invested in Ada to add a nutrition powders plant.

In Quincy, Washington, the company's Nutrilite division is building a $38 million botanical concentrate plant. When it is open in early 2014, the facility will process concentrated botanical extracts sourced from a company-owned local farm for use in the Nutrilite line of health products.

Amway is investing another $42 million to expand its production site in Buena Park, California. The project includes a granulation facility to support tablet production, research and development laboratories, and administrative space. Construction should be complete later this year or in early 2014.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.