By OLINKA KOSTER



The next time you open the door to the cheerful greeting 'Avon calling', you might expect a harder sell from your representative.
For estate agents, City workers and shop staff who have been made redundant are signing up to become Avon ladies.
Until recently, it was stay-at-home mothers who went door-to-door with the company's range of cosmetics and perfumes, to earn a little extra money.

But now Avon and other direct-selling businesses are seeing a rise in recruits from sectors hit hard by the downturn, as well as an increase in male representatives.
The trade body which looks after these businesses, the Direct Selling Association, reported a 15 per cent increase in new recruits in the last three months alone.
Its director, Richard Berry, said: 'Among the new direct selling recruits, we've seen a growth in people from markets that have been hit hard by redundancies, including estate agents, City workers and retail workers.
'Already there are now an estimated 440,000 people running their own direct selling businesses in the UK and we saw thousands of new recruits joining up in the lead up to Christmas.'
To make the most of the recruitment boom, Avon UK, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, is today launching a campaign aimed at attracting even more recruits.
In advertisements to be shown on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, it will point out that some representatives' businesses see six-figure annual turnover.
Anna Segatti, president of Avon UK, said: 'Avon has been empowering women in the UK for half a century, providing them with a means of financial independence.
'With this new campaign we want to spread the message that, unlike with some other enterprises, starting up your own direct selling business offers great earnings potential, balanced against a very low start-up cost.'
Angie Winter from Cambridgeshire, who appears in the adverts and has been an Avon rep for five years, said: 'When I started my Avon business I was working alone.
'Now I have a team of 70 representatives and I'm always getting inquiries from people interested in setting up their own Avon enterprise.



'Before working with Avon, many of my new recruits were finding it difficult to pay their bills but they've found that working with Avon allows them to really increase their income, while fitting their hours around family or other interests.'
Avon was established in America more than 120 years ago by a door-to-door bookseller who gave away vials of perfume to female customers.
He soon set up a business selling toiletries directly to customers.