Betterware

Betterware is a United Kingdom direct sales company for household products.

History and products

The company was founded in 1928 in East London and sold brushes door-to-door. It was originally called Betterwear and was renamed Betterware in 1970 to reflect a wider range of products. Andrew Cohen bought it in 1983 for £253,000 and moved it from Romford, Essex to Castle Vale, Birmingham.^[1] It became a public company in 1986 and was one of the best performing shares on the stockmarket in the early 1990s when its share price rose from about 20p to more than 250p. Cohen sold his share of the company in 1997 by which time it was valued at £117 million.^[2] Its product range now includes household products, kitchen and home storage products, personal care products, and mobility aids.^[3] In 2015, it moved 2 miles within Birmingham, to Hurricane Park, Bromford.

Business model

There is no cost to join Betterware and catalogues are supplied free of charge. The Betterware catalogue is delivered door-to-door in the United Kingdom and Ireland by a team of approximately 5,000 Distributors who then collect completed order forms. The products are then distributed from the company's warehouse in Hurricane Park, sandwiched between the River Tame and the M6. The sales force are all self-employed and work on either a part-time or full-time basis. Distributors report to line managers that the company calls coordinators, each covering a small town and surrounding area, or part of a larger town. They then report to Regional managers are responsible for all coordinators in their area, and they, in turn, report to the national sales director. All activity takes place within pre-determined geographical areas. Turnover is over £50 million. There are subsidiaries in Spain, Cyprus and Central America. In addition to the home delivery catalogue customers can order products directly from head office online. Centrally-placed orders are delivered by the distributor or coordinator covering the relevant area, and regarded as sales found by them. There is also a retail outlet at head office.

All the roles are commission based, Distributors receive 20% on sales, coordinators 11.2% of their team sales (usually equivalent to full-time wages).

Betterware has sponsored Marie Curie Cancer Care since 2009.^[4] It is a founder member of the UK Direct Selling Association.

References

External links

• Betterware company website
• ctalk telephony. Retrieved 20 September 2014