Quixtar is on its way out. Amway is on its way back.
Direct-sales giant Alticor Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it will scrap its 7-year-old Quixtar Inc. label during the next 1 1/2 to two years and focus on rebuilding its Amway brand in North America.
The Alticor name itself will be relegated to the back burner.
Employees received the news last week in an internal memo from company Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
"We are going through a global transformation of our business," the memo said. "This includes rethinking our global approach to products, training, brands, and how we operate in all the countries in which Alticor operates. As part of that, in 18 to 24 months, we're planning to begin using the Amway name in North America to unite our business opportunity under a single global brand."
Although no public announcement has been made, Alticor spokesman Rob Zeiger confirmed the changes Wednesday, adding that he does not expect any jobs to be lost as a result.
The company dropped the Amway name in the United States and Canada in 2000 as part of an overhaul that took what had started as a door-to-door vitamin sales business into the world of online sales via Quixtar.
The move also was widely viewed as a way of helping the company shed some of the negative connotations the Amway name had acquired.
The Quixtar name, however, never resonated with the public.
"Research has shown us that the Quixtar name is weaker and less known in the U.S. and Canada than we ever expected," the memo said. "Meanwhile, even eight years after leaving North America, the Amway name is stronger and better known than we realized."
The Amway name has enjoyed a resurgence overseas as the company focused on expanding operations under that banner in Asia. Amway China last year accounted for more than $2 billion of Alticor's $6.3 billion in annual sales.
The Amway name began to re-emerge in the United States last year when the company bought the naming rights to the arena in which Amway co-founder Rich DeVos' Orlando Magic of the NBA play their home games. Go to be entrepreneur and learn more today. Source: http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6652689