Editing Amway (section)

===Founding===
[[File:Amway Japan Head Office.jpg|thumb|upright|Amway Japan head office]]
[[File:Honda- Amway アムウェイベトナム（AVCL）Hồ Chí Minh PB277728.jpg|thumb|upright|Amway Vietnam (Hồ Chí Minh City)]]

Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos had been friends since school days and business partners in various endeavors, including a hamburger stand, an air charter service, and a sailing business. In 1949, they were introduced to the Nutrilite Products Corporation<ref>A California-based direct sales company founded by Carl Rehnborg, the developer of the first [[multivitamin]] marketed in the United States</ref> by Van Andel's second cousin Neil Maaskant. DeVos and Van Andel signed up to become distributors for [[Nutrilite]] [[food supplement]]s in August.<ref name="Conn">{{cite book |last=Conn |first=Charles Paul |title=The Possible Dream: A Candid Look At Amway |author-link=Charles Paul Conn |publisher=[[Revell]] |year=1977 |isbn=0-8007-0857-1}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2010}} They sold their first box the next day for $19.50, but lost interest for the next two weeks. They traveled to Chicago to attend a Nutrilite seminar soon afterward, at the urging of Maaskant, who had become their sponsor. They watched promotional filmstrips and listened to talks by company representatives and successful distributors, then they decided to pursue the Nutrilite business. They sold their second box of supplements on their return trip to Michigan, and rapidly proceeded to develop the business further.<ref name="Conn" />{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}

Earlier in 1949, DeVos and Van Andel had formed the Ja-Ri Corporation (abbreviated from their respective first names) to import wooden goods from South American countries. After the Chicago seminar, they turned Ja-Ri into a Nutrilite distributorship instead.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Andel |first=Jay |title=An Enterprising Life |author-link=Jay Van Andel |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=1998 |isbn=0-88730-997-6 |pages=37–39}}</ref> In addition to profits on each product sold, Nutrilite offered [[Commission (remuneration)|commissions]] on sales made by new distributors introduced to the company by existing distributors—a system known as [[multi-level marketing]] or network marketing. By 1958, DeVos and Van Andel had built an organization of more than 5,000 distributors. However, they and some of their top distributors formed the American Way Association, or Amway, in April 1959 in response to concerns about the stability of Nutrilite and in order to represent the distributors and look for additional products to market.<ref>{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=James W. |title=Empire of Freedom: The Amway Story and What It Means to You |publisher=[[Prima Publishing]] |year=1997 |isbn=0-7615-1088-5 |page=11}}</ref>

Their first product was called Frisk, an organic cleaner developed by a scientist in Ohio. DeVos and Van Andel bought the rights to manufacture and distribute Frisk, and later changed the name to LOC (Liquid Organic Cleaner).<ref>{{cite video |title=Profiles of the American Dream: Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel and the Remarkable Beginnings of Amway |medium=Documentary |publisher=Premiere Films |date=1997}}</ref> They subsequently formed the Amway Sales Corporation to procure and inventory products and to handle sales and marketing plans, and the Amway Services Corporation to handle insurance and other benefits for distributors.<ref>[[Bill Hybels]] interview with [[Rich DeVos]] at the {{ill|Willow Creek Association|lt=Willow Creek Association's|no|Willow Creek Norge}} [[Global Leadership Summit]] in 2000</ref> In 1960, they purchased a 50% share in Atco Manufacturing Company in Detroit, the original manufacturers of LOC, and changed its name to Amway Manufacturing Corporation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Andel|first=Jay |title=An Enterprising Life |author-link=Jay Van Andel |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1998 |isbn=0-88730-997-6 |pages=58–60}}</ref> In 1964, the Amway Sales Corporation, Amway Services Corporation, and Amway Manufacturing Corporation merged to form the Amway Corporation.<ref name="MLMLAW">From MLM Law Library: [http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/cases/mlm/ftc/amway.htm FTC Final Order from May 8, 1979 (93 F.T.C. 618)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015182742/http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/cases/mlm/ftc/amway.htm |date=October 15, 2008}}.</ref>

Amway bought a controlling interest in Nutrilite in 1972<ref>{{cite news|title=Ahead of Its Time Health Care: Nutrilite founder worked on the first food supplements in the 1920s; the company is now owned by Amway |first=Anne |last=Michaud |newspaper=Orange County Register |page=C01 |date=December 29, 1994}}</ref> and full ownership in 1994.