Forever Living was founded in 1978 in Tempe, Arizona as a direct-sell company[6] by businessmen Carl Jensen and Rex Maughan.[1] By the 1990s, Maughan had purchased the Texas company Aloe Vera of America, with Aloe Vera of America selling its products to Forever Living for distribution.[2] Initially selling only aloe vera juice, jelly, and lotions[7] in several Western states,[8] by 1979 the company was spreading its distribution across the United States.[9] Some journalists have likened the multi-level marketing business model of Forever Living’s distribution system to that of a pyramid scheme.[10]
Forever Living Products headquarters in McCormick Ranch in Airzona in 2007. The company’s resort division owns several similar properties.
The company purchased aloe fields in Texas in 1980.[8] Forever Living then purchased the assets of the company Aloe Vera of America in 1981.[11] Forever Living also opened the resort division Forever Resorts in 1981,[12] which over the coming years would come to own 18 resorts in various states,[12] including Southfork Ranch.[7] In 1983 the company launched its Forever Bee products[8]—a dietary supplement line consisting of royal jelly, bee pollen, bee propolis, and pure honey.[13] The company later expanded its product line to include dietary supplements consisting of aloe combined with vitamins, ginseng, minerals, fish oils, garlic, and other supplements.[13] Also in 1983 the company was named No. 6 on Inc. Magazines annual Inc. 500 list. Introduced in 1982, the list ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the United States.[4]
International expansion (1990-2009)[edit]
In 1992 sales exceeded $500 million.[8] According to Arthur Andersen’s Top 100, as of 1993, Forever Living Products International was Arizona’s second-largest private company.[14] Operating in the UK since 1992,[15] as of August 1995, Forbes reported the company’s product line included “deodorants, toothpaste, laundry detergent and three dozen other products, nearly all of which contain extract of aloe.”[16]
2005 saw annual revenues of over $1.15 billion[1] and Forever Living ended the year with around 150,000 distributors,[17] and 55 employees.[18] The following year Forbesnamed Forever Living as No. 340 on the Forbes 400 list, which ranks the largest private companies in the United States. With 4,100 employees, at the time Forbes stated the company was “the world’s largest distributor of aloe vera and beehive-based products.”[1] At that point the company was selling “aloe vera gel, natural aloe vera drinks, vitamins, and glamour and skin products in 100 countries.”[1]
Recent developments (2010-2015)[edit]
Introduced in 2009, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act set stricter standards for nutraceutical manufacturers, and to meet the regulations Forever Living spent $7 million on a new manufacturing plant in Phoenix. Completed in April 2010, the facility was named Forever Nutraceutical and initially employed around 60 people.[19] Forever Living also continued to own and operate its Aloe Vera of American Inc. manufacturing arm in Dallas,[19] as well as the farming division Forever Aloe Plantations.[3]
In 2010, revenue was 1.7 billion, and the company was selling its products through 9.3 million distributors.[5] In 2013 the publication New Vision reported that Forever Living had over 20,000 distributors in Uganda, of which only 83 had reached a managerial level and begun to recoup expenses.[20] The company was active in over 150 countries as of 2015.[6] In February 2015, the company announced they had appointed a new management team to “oversee the affairs of the company in Nigeria.
FORVER LIVING PRODUCTS 