Swedish direct sales company Oriflame is seeking to grow its business in East Africa, aiming to increase visibility and access by replicating its global Service Point Oriflame (SPO) model in the region. The SPO is operated by the company’s top networker in each country, and acts as a sign-up hub for new consultants as well as a training and distribution center.

“East Africa has a huge potential. The biggest growth factor today is the skin care segment where we grew by over 300 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year. The general awareness of consumers is going up, and of course people have more money in their pockets to spend,” Piyush Chandra, Oriflame’s Managing Director for East Africa told How We Made it in Africa. “In East Africa you have more than 143 million people, most of whom are young, educated and seeking income-generating opportunities.”

The company has already established six SPOs in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, according to the report in How We Made it in Africa, and is planning to open up to 20 more by the year end. “This is how we plan to expand in the region. The networker benefits by expanding their business, and it also helps us expand our footprint in suburbs and promising towns like Nakuru and Kisumu in Kenya,” said Chandra.