Nu Skin Enterprises

Nu Skin Enterprises

File:Nse logo.gif
Company type	Public (NYSE: NUS)
Industry	List of network marketing companies
Founded	1984
Headquarters	Provo, Utah
Key people	Blake M. Roney, Chairman M. Truman Hunt, President & CEO Sandra N. Tillotson, Senior VP Ritch N. Wood, CFO Joseph Y. Chang, CSO, Executive VP Product Development
Products	Nu Skin [1]) Pharmanex Big Planet [2]) Photomax [3]) Force for Good Foundation Nourish the Children [4]) Distributors Quest Elite International [5])
Revenue	$1.18 billion USD (2005) [6]
Number of employees	10,014 (July 2005)
Website	www.nuskinenterprises.com

Nu Skin Enterprises (also referred to as NSE) NYSE: NUS is an American multi-level marketing organization, which sells cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and Internet-based services. It was founded by Blake M. Roney in 1984 and officially listed in the NYSE in 1996.

The company was initially founded when Blake Roney and a small group of friends, including his sister Nedra, amassed $5,000 and ordered their first batch of products. There were initially only a dozen or so products, contract manufactured and delivered in gallon containers, which were then spooned into the first customers' own pots and jars at the founders' homes.

The company initially grew slowly, from 1984 to 1989, reaching a turnover of around $40 million in the USA. At this 'critical mass' point, things began to take-off, and by 1996 the corporation had global revenues of around $1 billion.

The decision was made to take the company public. Initially only the Nu Skin Asia Pacific company was floated, however, shortly afterwards all the remaining affiliates were sold to the new entity and the company was a fully-fledged public company.

The company has had challenges growing beyond the $1 billion mark, but has recently seen massive growth in its Pharmanex nutritional division, acquired in 1998 along with Big Planet Inc., due to the purchase of the global exclusive rights to a technology called the BioPhotonic Scanner, which measures skin carotenoid levels, thereby proving the efficacy of Pharmanex's supplement products.

In 2005, Nu Skin, through its Big Planet Division embarked on a new journey. They launched a new internet based service called Photomax. Photomax is a service that is positioning itself to be the leader in the $70 Billion Photographic and $150 Billion Entertainment industries by providing it's distributors and consumers with a service that focuses on the preservation, organisation, sharing and enjoyment of all their old paper based photographs and new digital photographs taken from both camera phones and digital camers, as well as the digitisation of old videos, negatives and slides.

Users are able to sign up for a free account where they can store up to 5GB of data (videos or images or a combination) for free. There is then a fee based subscription for further storage space. Consumers are then able to place those images and videos onto a number of output products such as DVD's, photobooks, calendars or even broadcast them on their very own internet based TV channel for a small monthly subscription. There are many more additoons and advancements planned for this service.

Founded in 1984, Nu Skin Enterprises 2005 sales reached approximately $1.2 billion in annual sales in 44 international markets. The Nu Skin brand has a line of more than 100 skin treatment and other personal care products. In 2005, approximately 82 percent of revenues were generated from markets in Asia.

Nu Skin Enterprises also runs a non-profit humanitarian organization called the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation. The foundation's stated mission is to support indigenous cultures and to protect fragile environments.

The Nu Skin distributor earns money in several ways. Firstly, they earn the retail profit when buying at wholesale and selling to retail customers, with an average mark-up of 43%. Secondly they can earn an override on the order volumes of those they personally recruit and train. Thirdly they earn a 'royalty' on the more successful of their teams through a potential 6 generations of Executive level independent distributors. The company's average distributor earnings are available from the corporate website.

As a leading member of the controversial Direct Selling Association, the company claims to operate extremely consumer-protective return and refund policies, exceeding the required levels.

Truman Hunt, CEO of NSE, is the current Chair of the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations. This organization, an umbrella group for individual countries' organizations, oversees the direct selling industry globally, with its member companies achieveing sales exceedign $100 billion for the first time in 2005.