Alticor

Alticor consists of five business areas: Amway which does direct selling, Quixtar which sells on the web, Pyxis Innovations which does corporate development for Alticor, Gurwitch Products which does upscale cosmetics, and Access Business Group which does manufacturing and logistics. Amway has over 3 million salespersons selling cosmetics, home care products, and vitamins directly to customers including family and friends. Alticor is owned by Amway founders, the DeVos and Van Andel families.

They have provided funding to both the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Private Enterprise.


 * Jay Van Andel, cofounder

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
Amgen has been a corporate funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). See ALEC Corporations for more.

The Revival of Amway in the USA
The Associated Press reported on December 26, 2008 that " as Amway's 50th anniversary approaches in May, Alticor is shelving the inert Quixtar label and pouring millions of dollars into reviving the Amway brand in North America with market research, national television commercials and ads in newspapers and magazines and online. The company will use a transitional name, Amway Global, before reverting in about a year to Amway. ...  Despite predictions of continuing economic gloom, Alticor executives hope to repeat in the United States the kind of growth they've seen abroad in the past - and to revive the mystique that helped the company spread throughout the Midwest and, by the mid-1960s, the rest of the country. Amway's hundreds of thousands of distributors dreamed of getting rich by selling cleaning products and by recruiting their acquaintances to join the fold.  Still operating on that basic model, including prices that tend to be higher than those of their competitors, Amway saw global sales revenue top $7.1 billion in fiscal 2007. The company predicts another $1 billion increase this year. And most of its recent growth, in such developing Asian markets as China, India and Russia, has been under the Amway name."

Political contributions
Betsy DeVos, the spouse of former Amway President Dick DeVos, is a Bush Pioneer having raised at least $100,000 for Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

Alticor gave $63,477 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election period through its political action committee - 0% to Democrats, 100% to Republicans.

Lobbying
The company spent $80,000 for lobbying in 2006. All of the lobbying was done by the lobbying firm Capitol Tax Partners.

Spin on Wikipedia
On July 26, 2005, an anonymous poster from an Amway/Quixtar IP removed references to their company's practice of "Google bombing," which is an attempt to drown out sites reporting deceptive practices and negative opinions. This was caught by the Wikiscanner tool. 

Personnel
Executives:
 * Al Koop, Chief Operating Officer, Access Business Group LLC.
 * David Ussery, President and Representative Director
 * Doug DeVos, President
 * Eva Cheng, Executive Vice President
 * Jim Payne, Executive Vice President
 * Steve Van Andel, Chairman

Selected board members:
 * Barb Van Andel-Gaby
 * Cheri DeVos VanderWeide
 * Dan DeVos

Contact details
7575 Fulton Street East Ada, MI 49355 Phone: 616-787-1000 Fax: 616-682-4000 Web: http://www.alticor.com

Related SourceWatch resources

 * Center for Private Enterprise
 * Richard DeVos
 * Steve Van Andel