Amway builds production base in China

Direct-selling giant Amway China announced it was building its largest overseas production base in south China, aiming to serve the country's fast-growing health food market.

The new base will be located in the Economic and Technology Development District of Luogang Area in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and will be completed in 2016. The 78,000-sq-m facility will produce the company's top selling Nutrilite products.

"Amway China will invest 600 million yuan ($94.5 million) to build the Guangzhou production base and a botanical research center in Wuxi," said Audie Wong, president of Amway China.

"The China investment is part of the company's manufacturing expansion," said Gan Chee Eng, President of Amway Greater China. "Amway is working on four manufacturing projects inside the United States, and others in India and Vietnam."

The Michigan based company said earlier that its global sales target will reach 12 billion dollars by the end of 2012. Sales revenue in China was around 22 billion yuan in 2010. Last year it reached 26.7 billion yuan.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as well as the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's economic planner, the nutrition and health food market in China will reach 1 trillion yuan in 2015, an annual surge of 20 percent.