Amway to Expand Its Reach With New Internet Site

Amway, a company known for cheery salespeople selling household goods to friends in their living rooms, is taking a giant step into the impersonal world of cyberspace.

Amway is expected to announce today that it will launch a new Internet site, Quixtar.com, in September. The news marks the latest move by direct sellers to broaden the way they pitch their products.

Tupperware, the company that popularized at-home sales demonstrations in the 1940s, said last month it would offer its food storage products online by the end of the year. It is also trying out sales at kiosks in shopping malls.

Avon and other direct sellers also have opened retail stores.

Amway, unlike other Internet retailers, does not face the challenge of establishing a distribution network--it already has one. The Ada, Mich.-based company also has a built-in promotional staff--its army of 3 million sales representatives, who have already started touting the new Web site to their customers.

Amway, which is privately held, already operates an Amway.com site as a promotional vehicle. It decided against using its own name for the new site because it also plans to sell thousands of goods and services from other companies.

Vitamin Inquiry: Swiss vitamin maker Lonza and five U.S. executives at other companies agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges and to cooperate with the Justice Department’s intensifying investigation of price-fixing in the international vitamin market. Lonza agreed to pay $10.5 million in connection with its role in a conspiracy to fix prices and allocate volume of sales for vitamin B3, also known as niacin and niacinamide, from 1992 to 1998.