Petaling Jaya, May 18, 2006
Members of the Direct Selling Association of Malaysia (DSAM) continued to record an impressive increase with a combined sales turnover of RM2.7billion in 2007, an increase of RM20 million from 2004.
This represents almost half of the direct selling industry’s estimated sales turnover of RM5.8billion in 2005. The largest contribution by product range to the sales turnover came from nutritional products, skin care and cosmetics products as well as personal care products. The combined turnover came from its 66 members which included listed companies such as Amway (Malaysia) Holdings Berhad, Hai-O Enterprise Bhd, Caely Holdings Bhd; CNI Holdings Berhad, multi-nationals such as Shaklee Products (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Sunrider International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Nu Skin (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as well as home-grown companies such as Gano Excel Enterprise (M) Sdn Bhd, Zhulian Marketing Sdn Bhd and Elken Sdn Bhd. There are 533 licensed direct selling companies in Malaysia.
In revealing the members’ 2005 turnover at DSAM’s Annual General Meeting recently, its President, Paul Yee said: “2005 marks the seventh consecutive year in which DSAM members recorded an increase in sales turnover. Their sterling performance is due to the key initiatives they have undertaken to ensure continued growth and sustainability in the industry.”
One key factor attributing to the growth in turnover included the increase in distributor productivity as the number of distributors has remained constant in the last few years. Other initiatives consisted of members leveraging on introducing new products, heightened product promotions, enhanced incentive programmes and continued investment in product and business opportunity training programmes to support the retailing and recruitment efforts of their distributors.
In 2005 alone, member companies invested a total of RM16 million in training, reflecting the direct selling companies’ continuous emphasis and commitment in promoting knowledgeable and ethical conduct amongst its distributors.
Reinforcing one of its roles in helping to spur the growth of local manufacturers, DSAM members spent RM293 million in total expenses for the purchase of products from local manufacturers last year, up nearly 12% from RM262 million in 2004.
Concluded Yee: “DSAM expects that the outlook for 2006 for its member companies will be challenging given the rising cost of goods, but the industry has proven to be resilient in both strong and weak economic times because of the income opportunity that it offers.”
Our direct selling companies continue to emphasize on the delivery of quality products and attractive incentive programmes to make direct selling a viable business option for more people. In doing so, we expect the momentum for the industry to be on an upward trend and we should see another year of growth, barring any unforeseen circumstances.