TOP 100 MID-SIZED COMPANIES SURVEY: Forever Living turnover rises to record Sh30bn

Dar es Salaam. A wellness and beauty products company, Forever Living Tanzania Limited, believes that association with the Top 100 Survey has contributed to the firm’s growth.

“We see the Top 100 Survey as a bridge. We are now more trusted by customers and business partners than we used to be,” says Mr Anderson Kimaryo, the company’s area manager. Forever Living Tanzania Limited started operations in the country in 2007.

Discipline in the way a company conducts itself is a key criterion for participating in the Top 100 survey. For a company to take part, financial and tax records have to be in order. “We participated for six consecutive years before graduating to the Club 101 level,” Mr Kimaryo says.

The company took part in the Top 100 Mid-Size Survey for the first time in 2011. In 2016 it graduated from Mid-Sized companies level to the 101 Club. A company must have surpassed an annual turnover of Sh20 billion for it to graduate to Club 101.

The Top 100 competition involves companies with an annual turnover ranging from Sh1 billion to Sh20 billion. The Survey is organised by Mwananchi Communications Ltd (MCL) and the audit and tax advisory firm, KPMG. It is held annually since 2011.

Success

The company saw its business growing by 8 per cent between 2011 and 2012, up to 40 per cent in 2012 and 2013.

Again in 2013/14 their revenue grew by over 100 per cent that was contributed largely by the number of people who joined the network and those who were buying products.

Apart from visibility and the trust that came with their participation in Top 100 surveys, Mr Kimaryo mentioned other factors that contributed to their success as incentives that the company offered to distributers such as attractive commissions and motor vehicles.

Growth of revenue went along with increase in the number of new members. Shortly after the Top 100 Survey the company received between 300 and 400 new members, he said referring to the period from 2011 to 2014 compared to years before they became part of the competition.

“From 2015 to 2016 the number of new members doubled to 800 and that was a result of people having more confidence in our products but also the Top 100 logo helped a lot as it was widely used by our distributors to promote the products.”

Currently, the turnover is around Sh30.6 billion up from Sh9 billion in 2011 when the Top 100 Survey started.

Challenges

Last year the company did not do very well in terms of new members – it registered only 150 new members.

“One of the factors was the decrease in money circulation. Many people can no longer afford to buy products as they used to do in the past.

“There is also increasing competition from other companies that are engaged in network marketing business just like us. Also, the level of understanding of networking business it is still low.

Future Plans

The company is reorganising its business strategy so it remains stable in the market.

One of the new approaches is targeting customers with high purchasing power who can buy products in bulk.