By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Direct selling giant Amway plans to open its Asian logistics hub in Busan as part of its efforts to set up an innovative and efficient product supply chain management system in the fast-growing Asian region.
Amway Korea said Thursday that it would hold an opening ceremony at the nation's largest port city on May 22 and central government bureaucrats as well as Busan officials will attend.
The facility, dubbed the Amway Asia Logistics Hub, is the U.S.-based firm's third distribution center, following its head office in Ada, Michigan and another one in the Netherlands.
The Busan hub is projected to handle an annual volume of 8,000 TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent units, of freight. This amounts to approximately 1 trillion won worth of cargo.
``Through local sourcing of the goods related to the `Amway Technology & Product Global Development Project,' the Amway headquarters plans to continuously pursue business expansion and growth via the Busan logistics hub,'' said Ken Davis, Amway Global's Vice President of Logistics.
``Amway Asia Logistics Hub's faithful fulfillment of its role as one of Amway Global's big three logistics centers and expansion of the business will have the effect of continuously contributing to the Korean government's `Buy Korea' policy and will also help promote the Korean industry by creating jobs and bringing various economic benefits to the Busan region.''
The Amway logistics center is expected to generate 50,000 jobs per annum. Plus, as it plans to procure many products or raw material locally, it would lead to additional economic benefits amounting to about 100 billion won over the next five years.
Amway said that they picked Busan because of its geographical advantage ― the city is situated at an optimal place to send products to other Asian countries.
With the advent of the Busan hub, products that used to be shipped from Amway's U.S. headquarters to Asian countries will now go through Busan before being transported to their final destinations.