Latest news with #Amway
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Soft demand continues to affect Amway's sales
PETALING JAYA: Amway (M) Holdings Bhd could continue to face the effects of softening consumer demand for its products in the near term, analysts say. TA Research noted that demand for non-essential goods appears to be weakening, while continued upward pressure on product costs is likely to persist for the direct-selling company. Additionally, the research house highlighted that Amway's outlook for this year remains challenging, weighed down by global economic uncertainty. CIMB Research also expects continued softness in Amway's top line in the near term, as consumers prioritise essential spending. 'While the challenging demand environment may weigh on revenue growth, we anticipate Amway to exercise prudent cost management and optimisation strategies to help mitigate margin pressures and support profitability in the near term,' the research house said. Amway recently reported a weaker-than-expected first-quarter core net profit of RM13.2mil, marking a 58.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline. This also represents the ninth consecutive quarter of y-o-y revenue decline.
Business Wire
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
o9 Deploys Demand Planning at Amway
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- o9, a leading enterprise AI software platform provider for transforming planning and decision-making, today announced the successful go-live of its Demand Planning capabilities within Amway 's Asia Pacific region. Amway, the world's largest direct selling company, distributes and manufactures health and wellbeing products and solutions in the categories of Nutrition, Beauty, Personal Care and Home in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. With multiple legacy systems and forecasting models that lacked the flexibility and predictive capabilities needed to compete in today's volatile business environment, the company turned to o9 to transform and modernize its demand planning process. Amway selected the o9 Digital Brain platform for its AI/ML forecasting solutions that are now driving improvements in forecast accuracy and enabling greater collaboration and decision-making through one centralized system of record. Within the Asia Pacific region, o9 has implemented agile forecasting to improve accuracy, reduce volatility, and drive touchless planning across its SKUs, as well as integrated planning for new product introductions to provide seamless transitions from launch to ongoing demand. o9 has also implemented planner enablement and system integration capabilities, which allows planners to make data-driven decisions to ensure scalability of supply chain operations and improve productivity. To date, the o9 platform has delivered value through improved forecast accuracy and operational efficiencies, and enhanced responsiveness to market shifts. Amway is now in the process of deploying the solution to the remaining Amway markets. 'As the global leader in the direct selling industry, optimizing our supply chain and demand planning capabilities is essential to delivering on our promise to Amway Business Owners and customers,' said Gaby Gutierrez, Vice President of Amway Global Supply Chain Planning. 'Through our partnership with o9, we are advancing a planning model that strengthens existing capabilities and builds new ones to ensure product availability with inventories that are both efficient and effective.' 'We're pleased to partner with Amway to help build greater supply chain resiliency and planning capabilities at a time when companies face many complexities in managing global supply chains,' said Chakri Gottemukkala, Co-Founder and CEO of o9. 'By implementing the o9 platform, we anticipate many benefits for Amway, including enhancing forecasting accuracy, reducing stockouts, and optimizing working capital. We look forward to serving Amway as a client for many years to come.' To learn more about o9, visit About Amway Amway is a business owner-led global health and wellbeing company based in Ada, Michigan, U.S. It is committed to serving Amway Business Owners and their customers across more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. Top-selling brands for Amway are Nutrilite™, Artistry™ and XS™ – all sold exclusively by entrepreneurs who are known as Amway Business Owners. Amway is the No. 1 direct selling business in the world, according to the 2025 Direct Selling News Global 100 list. For company news, visit: About o9 o9 is a leading AI-powered platform for integrated business planning and decision-making for the enterprise. Whether it is driving demand, aligning demand and supply, or optimizing commercial initiatives, any planning process can be made faster and smarter with o9's AI-powered digital solutions. o9 brings together technology innovations—such as graph-based enterprise modeling, big data analytics, advanced algorithms for scenario planning, collaborative portals, easy-to-use interfaces and cloud-based delivery—into one platform. For more information, please visit
Hospitality Net
28-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Melbourne a ‘Sporting Chance' of Delivering Accor's Best Annual Performance since 2019
British & Irish Lions Tour and Ashes Test series tipped to deliver bumper second half of 2025 for Melbourne's hotel industry Surge in leisure demand soaks up record increase in city hotel supply Accor supports diversity in employment with new partnership Melbourne's reputation as the sporting capital of Australia is set to drive the strongest annual performance for Accor since 2019. Accor is Australia's largest hotel operator, with 51 hotels in Greater Melbourne and 13 hotels across regional Victoria. The city began 2025 by hosting the most successful Australian Open on record (1.2 million fans through the gates) and a record-breaking Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix (465,498 attendees across four days). Last month, Accor's hotels – including Sofitel Melbourne on Collins and Pullman Melbourne on the Park – were central to Melbourne's largest-ever international incentive event, with the city successfully hosting almost 16,000 delegates for the Amway China Leadership Seminar. Amway China's top sellers arrived in groups of 2,500+ delegates, each experiencing five days of business seminars, tours, and a gala dinner. The incentive generated $100 million in economic impact for the State. This momentum is expected to continue into the second half of the year, with Melbourne poised for a major uplift from two marquee events: the British & Irish Lions Tour in July and the Boxing Day Ashes Test at year's end. While Melbourne is not traditionally considered a rugby union stronghold, it stands to benefit significantly from the anticipated 40,000 international visitors travelling for the Lions Tour - the first since 2013. The MCG is expected to be at full capacity (100,000+) for the match, with many UK fans likely to extend their stay in the city for up to a week. The Ashes clash between Australia and England at the MCG also holds the potential to draw a record-breaking crowd, potentially surpassing the venue's Test cricket attendance record of 373,691 set during the 2023 Boxing Day Test against India. Events-driven hotel supply increase Melbourne's reputation for hosting world-class events has driven a substantial expansion in hotel supply, with the city accounting for the largest share of new hotel openings in Australia in recent years. Over the five year period between January 2019 and January 2025, Melbourne added 22 new hotels (more than 5,000 rooms). This represents an impressive 21% growth in hotel inventory. Accor and Ennismore – the Group's fast-growing lifestyle collective - have been at the forefront of delivering new hotels across Melbourne, including the Australian debut of the Hyde Hotels brand with Hyde Melbourne Place, The Sebel Melbourne Kew, and Novotel and ibis Styles Melbourne Airport. A major refurbishment of Mantra Melbourne Airport is also scheduled for completion in September. A strong development pipeline includes Mercure Melbourne La Trobe (opening early 2026), The Hoxton Melbourne (opening late 2027), and SO/ Melbourne (opening 2028). Accor Pacific Chief Operating Officer, Adrian Williams, said Melbourne's proven track record in delivering major events was ensuring demand kept pace with the growing hotel supply. Melbourne is offering some of the finest new hotel product in a generation, which combines exceptionally well with the city's reputation as a dynamic leisure destination to keep building visitor numbers. Recovery in international, group, business and conference travel, combined with a packed events calendar, is seeing our occupancy forecasts tracking 7 per cent ahead of last year. Winter is traditionally a quiet time for Melbourne hotels, but not this year. Over the past four weeks, the average booking pace has increased 6 per cent on last year across Melbourne and surrounds. The fact that the British & Irish Lions rugby tour and the Boxing Day Ashes Test will draw substantial international, interstate and intrastate visitation gives us every confidence we're on track to deliver the strongest year for our Melbourne hotels since 2019. The AFL, meanwhile, continues to be a powerhouse for tourism, consistently drawing interstate and regional visitors throughout winter and significantly boosting hotel occupancy rates. As the official accommodation partner of the AFL, we recognise the league's pivotal role in sustaining the city's tourism and hospitality economy. While the Lions tour will roar through Melbourne for one week in July, the AFL delivers a season-long influx of fans - culminating in peak occupancy during the Grand Final weekend. Sporting events have become one of the most important demand drivers for our Melbourne hotels, but the benefits of hosting these international events go far beyond the actual event. They generate extended stays, repeat visitation, and global exposure for the city. The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and Australian Open are world-class events that attract a massive international audience. We continue to see guests prioritising these global events as non-discretionary leisure experiences, choosing to extend their stay and make the most of the city and State's attractions. Next year, Melbourne will diversify its sporting pedigree even further through Visit Victoria's multi-year agreement to host regular American National Football League games, which will attract a new and high yielding audience to the city. The strength of recovery across various market sectors this year is very encouraging, and given there is further potential to increase both international tourism and business travel, the outlook offers real optimism for the hotel sector – even against the backdrop of cost-of-living pressures and international trade uncertainty. Mr Williams Supporting diversity in employment - Diversity Pathways project launches in Melbourne Mr Williams said the significant expansion in hotel supply was creating exciting opportunities for hospitality professionals, with strong demand for qualified and passionate people to support the opening of new hotels across the city. The recruitment and development of hotel and hospitality staff remains a priority for the industry. Our preference at Accor has always been to grow from within the organisation, but the pace of hotel expansion in Melbourne has been unprecedented and we need governments to support skilled migration, while also investing in tertiary and trade education for the hospitality industry. One solution is to attract new entrants to the industry and, to help achieve that, Accor has partnered with Flinders University's Centre for Social Impact to launch the Diversity Pathways project in Melbourne, commencing this month. This is a six-phase initiative designed to boost employment opportunities for people with cognitive disabilities in the hospitality sector. The program will see Accor hotels and lounges in Melbourne, and later across the country, take part in a tailored mentoring program, supported by experts in disability employment, hospitality and Disability Employment Services (DES). Accor has long been a leader in developing programs to address diversity and inclusion barriers to attract, retain and grow our teams, and this new partnership reinforces our commitment to fostering more inclusive and diverse workplaces across the industry. Mr Williams From luxury to economy, Accor operates more than 400 hotels in the Pacific region under renowned brands such as Sofitel, MGallery, Art Series, Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, The Sebel, Mantra, Handwritten Collection, Novotel, TRIBE, Mercure, BreakFree, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget, as well as Ennismore's Hyde and SO/. About Accor, a world-leading hospitality group Accor is a world-leading hospitality group offering stays and experiences across more than 110 countries with over 5,600 hotels and resorts, 10,000 bars & restaurants, wellness facilities and flexible workspaces. The Group has one of the industry's most diverse hospitality ecosystems, encompassing around 45 hotel brands from luxury to economy, as well as Lifestyle with Ennismore. ALL, the booking platform and loyalty program embodies the Accor promise during and beyond the hotel stay and gives its members access to unique experiences. Accor is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity, and inclusivity. Accor's mission is reflected in the Group's purpose: Pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures, with heartfelt care. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France. Included in the CAC 40 index, the Group is publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information, please visit or follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Naomi Hammond Communications Manager - Pacific +61(0) 434 738 380 Accor
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
An Awkward Truth About American Work
A few years ago, a cheeky meme made the rounds on the internet—a snappy rejoinder to a question about dream jobs: 'I do not dream of labor.' The witticism, sometimes misattributed to James Baldwin, began to spread a few months into the coronavirus pandemic, as the shock of mass layoffs started to give way to broader dissatisfaction with work. Before long, an untethering from office culture, combined with the security of a tight labor market, led many workers to quit their 9-to-5 jobs. Nobody, Kim Kardashian declared, wanted to work anymore—but that wasn't exactly true. More plausibly, the "Great Resignation" marked a shift—perhaps a permanent one—in when, where, and how people wanted to work. Moments of cultural change present openings for cons. Early in the pandemic, the number of multi-level-marketing schemes (or MLMs) exploded online. Such enterprises invite non-salaried workers to sell goods and then also earn commissions by recruiting more salespeople; the Federal Trade Commission has over the years outlined subtle legal differences between MLMs and pyramid schemes. As millions of Americans lost or quit jobs, MLM advocates on the internet made an enticing pitch: Work as we knew it wasn't cutting it anymore; other options were out there. Framing the chance to hawk leggings or makeup or 'mentorship' as an opportunity that could yield flexible income and a sense of community, they promised a kind of life that was too good to be true. A few years ago, the journalist Bridget Read started looking into the outfits behind such appeals. Initially, by her own account, Read couldn't really understand how MLMs worked. But some big questions stuck with her—among them, why exactly they were legal. She lays out what she's learned in her engaging new book, Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America, which exposes some awkward truths about the nature of American work. Weaving in sympathetic portrayals of women who lost money and friends after working with MLM schemes, she recasts them as victims of a multigenerational swindle. [Read: LuLaRich reveals a hole in the American economy] MLM participants surely drive their friends and family crazy with their hard sells; they are also, in Read's telling, marks. She cites a 2011 analysis that found that 99 percent of participants in one MLM lost money, and she exhaustively catalogs the predations of the sector writ large. Read writes with scorn about the industry's early architects, who made outrageous health claims and touted their companies' 'profits pyramid,' and about right-wing opportunists who expanded MLMs' power and reach—especially the founders of Amway, a massive company with connections to Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. But she never disparages her sources, whose stories of drained bank accounts and dashed dreams she portrays only with empathy. She threads the tale of a pseudonymous Mary Kay seller, a military veteran struggling to make ends meet, throughout the book. The woman loses more than $75,000. These vignettes keep the human toll of the schemes top of mind. Read's indictment of MLM outfits is predictable enough, but her research also reveals how much corporate America has in common with this shady economy, which has long been dismissed as a kooky sideshow. Corporations have borrowed from the methods of MLM companies—hiring large, contingent workforces; pushing employees to think like entrepreneurs; and lobbying hard for friendlier regulations. MLMs turn out to be more closely aligned with the center of corporate life (and political power) than many people might like to think. A key innovation of the industry was to rely on a fleet of temporary workers. During the Great Depression, when Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration was expanding the social safety net and implementing muscular work protections, an organization then called the National Association of Direct Selling Companies agitated for a carve-out that would designate salespeople as 'independent contractors' rather than employees. Historically, such contractors had occupied a tiny niche, but in a time of expanding regulation, classifying workers in this way became a handy loophole. This category later set the template for tech start-ups, including Uber and DoorDash, that challenged traditional full-time employers. As of July 2023, about 4 percent of the American workforce had temporary jobs as their main or only role, and an additional 7.4 percent of Americans were independent contractors, according to a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That percentage may seem small, but it encompasses millions of workers and outnumbers many sectors of employment; other surveys find that tens of millions of Americans do such work for supplemental income too. As Read writes, 'The part-time, low-paid work that direct selling pioneered' now 'defines our current labor market rather than covers its gaps.' The low quality of many legitimate jobs has long provided cover for shadier schemes. Squint, and an MLM racket doesn't look all that different from the work of an influencer or telemarketer or door-to-door-salesman. If a major indictment of MLMs is that many of their contractors don't seem to actually sell much at all, well—the same could be said of many other jobs today. And the gig economy isn't walled off from the rest: Many Americans still have full-time, union-eligible jobs, but a lot of them dip into temporary or part-time work to make ends meet. The Mary Kay annual meeting features a special cheering moment for teachers who sell makeup on the side. [Read: When multilevel marketing met Gen Z] Many of the messages that MLMs adopt to reel in workers rely on a central contradiction, criticizing the corporate grind while extolling the free market. Amway recruiters, for one, have explicitly used anti-establishment language in their pitch: When you're working a 9-to-5, you are in the 'rut,' but when you break free and set your own hours, you are living 'the dream.' In fact, you are often forsaking security for precarity—or worse. As Read and others have written, the opportunity quickly becomes a disaster for all but a very lucky few. MLMs and their boosters deny that the companies are pyramid-shaped—Amway, according to one hagiographer, is shaped more like 'a flower.' But each, in Read's telling, also takes the form of a fun-house mirror. Throughout the history of MLMs, contractions and collapses in the broader economy have been good for them. Direct selling was hailed as 'counter-cyclical' and 'depression-proof' during the 1930s, Read notes. In the 1970s, widespread white-collar layoffs and looming stagflation presented another opening. 'In the direct selling business hard times are good times,' the founders of Amway wrote in a 1974 edition of their corporate magazine. In more recent decades, the sector's free-market ethos dovetailed with new cultural moods: MLMs both shaped and reinforced the values of the greed-is-good 1980s, as well as the self-help-obsessed aughts and the 'grindset' ethos that followed the 2008 recession. Seizing opportunities to grow businesses is, of course, what companies have always done. But this industry seized them to advance practices that flirted with, and sometimes qualified as, outright fraud. Read ably explains why these businesses have appealed to generations of underpaid and insecure American workers, and she argues that it's not greed or stupidity that drives people (especially women juggling family responsibilities) into the arms of the schemes but the decline of middle-class stability. MLM opportunities promise what American jobs used to: security, freedom, dignity. Those promises have consistently failed to materialize. But the fact that so many are desperate to get in on the schemes each year is not a credit to the broader job market. A person well served by the economy is unlikely to salivate at the prospect of making extra cash by pushing lipsticks on the side. Today, many workers at more conventional jobs face the havoc of just-in-time scheduling and inconsistent shifts; these employees seek out more flexible arrangements in spite of their downsides. In Read's telling, MLMs are a toxin masquerading as a cure. Among their many ruses is their insistence on a message of empowerment: that participants are 'bosses' or 'owners.' What makes this easier to pull off is the fact that MLM outfits don't have the kind of central, visible leader the public associates with many higher-profile schemes—no Sam Bankman-Fried or Bernie Madoff or Elizabeth Holmes. Read names the leaders who benefit, and in doing so, she delivers a damning portrait of those who take advantage—and she humanizes the people they rip off. Investigating an industry notorious for doublespeak and euphemism, she calls things what they are. Article originally published at The Atlantic
The Star
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Amway warns of continued profit pressure amid tough business environment
KUALA LUMPUR: Amway (M) Bhd expects the prevailing challenging business environment to continue weighing on its revenue and profitability. 'Amid a challenging economic landscape in 2025, brought about by uncertainties in the global trade and tariff policies, weaker consumer demand and rising product costs driven by inflationary pressures, the group remains guided by our commitment to delivering shareholders' value and our reputation as a trusted provider of health and wellbeing products,' Amway said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia. It added that it would continue focusing on delivering holistic gut health solutions while adapting its business model to evolving consumer needs. 'In support of its long-term strategy, the group will continue to make targeted and prudent investments in several areas, including ABO-centric programmes, innovative product launches, health-centric communities, and essential infrastructure and technology upgrades,' it said. In the first quarter ended March 31, Amway's net profit tumbled 60% to RM13.2mil, down from RM32.7mil in the same quarter last year. The lower profit was due to higher product costs arising from the increase in purchase price and lower sales volume. Revenue for the quarter fell to RM294.3mil against RM322mil previously mainly due to lower demand towards health & wellness products and home appliances. Its earnings per share slid to 8.04 sen from 19.92 sen a year prior. Amway has announced a first single-tier interim dividend of 5.0 sen per share. The payment will be made on June 20.
