This letter was posted at the Quixtar Blog by Dave Robison of On The Road with Dave fame (my comments coming shortly in a seperate post – stay tuned you might be surprised at my take on this):

Letter: from Ben Woodward Branch Manager Amway UK UK/ROI IBO
Communication

May 4, 2007

To: UK/ROI IBO Leader
From: Ben Woodward, Branch Manager, Amway UK

RE: Significant change to Amway’s mode of operations in UK/Republic of Ireland.

This letter is to inform you of significant changes to the way Amway will conduct its business in the UK and Republic of Ireland. These changes are effective immediately. While these changes may cause short-term challenges for some of our IBOs, we strongly believe the changes will make our long-term business in the UK/RoI stronger.

Effective Immediately: 4 May 07.
Amway will prohibit the production, sale or promotion of BSM that are not authorized and distributed by Amway; this includes websites. This includes any BSM (books, tapes, meetings, CD’s, websites) that have been already been approved by Amway UK/RoI. They are now considered unauthorized for use.

All meetings for which an entry fee is charged are suspended until Amway has approved, in writing, the meeting and its content;

Amway has imposed a moratorium on sponsoring new IBOs for at least 60 days and until current IBOs are re-trained and re-qualified; We are evaluating all costs associated with joining Amway;

We are also sanctioning a number of IBOs based on contract violations that have come to our attention.

Failure to comply with the above mentioned points 1 to 3 will lead to a suspension and/or termination of the respective IBO contract. Please also note that Amway is in no way limited to these sanctions, but can impose further corrective or punitive measures.

In addition, the company is announcing a thorough review of its business practices globally with the goal of ensuring a consistent, rigorously enforced set of rules and regulations governs its relationships with IBOs and consumers.

That global audit has begun, and we expect it to be completed in June, and will share the results with you later this summer.

These are important steps, but in some ways, they are not surprising ones. Many of you know that for the past 10 years, Amway has been moving to exert more control over the way we do business globally.

In newer markets that has meant, for example, outright bans or tight
restrictions on the sale of non-company BSMs and the requirement of a more consistent, approved messaging and branding by IBOs about the Amway business opportunity.

While most changes in other markets have been carried out gradually around the world according to our timetable, we need to move more quickly here. This is in response to serious concerns raised about Amway by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) following the receipt of complaints about BSMs and misrepresentation of the business to prospective IBOs.

At this time, we can not specify when sponsoring will be allowed to resume. We will continue to communicate with key international and local IBO leadership to update them on developments of a new operational mode in UK and Republic of Ireland.

Enquiries
For example, if any IBO has a planned meeting for which tickets have been sold (that is required to be cancelled and ticket purchases refunded), or they have unsold inventory of BSM, or have unsold Starter kits, or have completed applications not yet submitted to Amway, they may contact the dedicated enquiry telephone number – 01908-629400 (press option 4).

In the following weeks, we will seek to meet with you personally to discuss the implications of this policy change and respond to any questions you may have. Meanwhile, please feel free to call me at 01908-629404.

Amway has been in the UK/RoI for more than 30 years, and today is a strong, growing £13 million business with more than 100 staff and 30,000 IBOs. We are entering into a challenging period of time.

But we believe in this business, we believe in our values and we believe in our IBOs. We are committed to making the changes we need to make in order to ensure the continued growth and success of Amway in the UK/RoI.

BEN WOODWARD
Branch Manager UK / RoI