Anran Review and Profile

Anran is a nanotechnology and health-products company operated by Shandong Anran Nano Industry Development Co., Ltd., part of the Anran Group, and headquartered in Weihai, Shandong Province, China. The company was founded in June 2004 by Liu Rundong, who serves as Chairman, and Liang Hao, who serves as Vice Chairman and President. It was originally set up as a Hong Kong-invested enterprise. Anran develops products using organic and inorganic nano-material technologies and plant stem-cell ingredients, and its catalog includes functional textiles and apparel, nutritional supplements, skin care, cleaning products, cookware, and home-living items. On January 9, 2012, China's Ministry of Commerce granted Anran a direct-selling license, making it the first company in Shandong Province to receive one. The license originally covered a limited group of products in the Weihai area, including cosmetics, cleaning products, and small kitchenware. A Malaysian affiliate, Anran Nano (M) Sdn. Bhd., previously held a Malaysian direct-sales license that expired in 2014.

Anran sells through independent distributors and partners. Anran has not published an official compensation plan in English, and its Chinese-language plan is not available on the company website. The details below come from Chinese media reports published in 2018 and 2019. According to those reports, distributors joined at one of several card levels, Regular, Silver, Gold, and VIP, by making a one-time product purchase of about 950 to 17,100 yuan. To stay eligible for bonuses, distributors had to make annual or monthly repeat purchases. The reported plan included a retail bonus of 35% of personal sales volume, a repeat-purchase bonus of 3% paid through 12 to 17 generations depending on card level, and a weekly area bonus of 8% to 16% on the lesser-volume legs of the organization, subject to weekly caps. It also included a development bonus of up to 65% of the earnings of personally sponsored distributors through as many as 10 generations, paid at 10% on the first three generations and 5% on the next seven. Anran did not respond to reporters' requests to confirm these terms, and the current plan may differ.

Income Disclosures:

Npros was unable to find a published income disclosure for Anran.

In October 2019, the market-supervision bureau of Anji County, Zhejiang Province, penalized four Anran VIP members for organizing pyramid-selling activities under China's Regulations on Prohibiting Pyramid Selling. The bureau found that the members had each bought 21,180 yuan of Anran products to qualify as VIP members and had earned commissions on purchases made by people they recruited. Each was fined and had earnings confiscated totaling 10,000 yuan. The local company that provided the venue for the activities was fined 200,000 yuan. The penalties were issued against the individuals and the local company rather than against Anran itself.

In 2019, a former salesperson filed suit against Anran in the People's Court of Huancui District in Weihai, alleging that the compensation structure used by the company's "Diamond International" sales group violated China's direct-selling rules. The suit claimed that the structure paid team-based commissions on downline sales, which Chinese law prohibits for direct sellers. The court record available online is a civil ruling and does not establish a finding that Anran operated a pyramid scheme.

In 2021, the market-supervision bureau of Guanshanhu District in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, fined an Anran distributor 168,930 yuan and confiscated 31,070 yuan in illegal gains for conducting direct-selling activities without direct-seller certification. The distributor was located outside the Weihai area covered by Anran's approved direct-selling license. The penalty was imposed on the distributor rather than on Anran.