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Amway finds gas a natural
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November 10, 1998: 8:34 a.m. ET
Big marketer to use its clout peddling natural gas with Columbia Energy
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Hoping to tap a potentially gargantuan market for deregulated energy, Amway Corp., a direct marketer of products from detergents to dietary supplements, is teaming up with a subsidiary of Columbia Energy Group to shop natural gas to more than a million residential customers.
The companies plan to launch their joint effort in Georgia, one of several states spearheading a nationwide deregulation drive under which customers are permitted to choose the company that supplies their natural gas or electricity.
The alliance said it will compete with 18 other marketers for 1.4 million natural gas customers in Georgia. Over time, the companies said, they intend to expand the program, state by state, as energy deregulation gains speed. They eventually hope to add electricity to what the partners envision will be a coast-to-coast sales portfolio.
In most states, sales of natural gas and electricity still are the purview of state-run public commissions. But that arrangement is slowly changing, analysts say, as deregulated competition takes hold across the industry.
The trend mirrors a similar one in telecommunications in the 1980s, when AT&T's virtual stranglehold on telephone calling was abruptly undone with the court-mandated splintering of Ma Bell into several regional "Baby bells".
The companies announced their sales partnership after the Georgia Public Service Commission recently certified Columbia Energy, of Herndon, Va., to sell natural gas at decontrolled prices to residential and small business customers.
Energy deregulation, many experts say, ultimately is a boon to consumers, who ideally would suddenly be given a range of energy providers from which to choose. The hope for consumer advocates is that growing competition will result in lower prices and better access for energy buyers.
Columbia Energy is one of the nation's leading energy providers, with assets of more than $6 billion in operations spanning all phases of natural gas production.
The company directly or indirectly provides energy to more than 7 million natural gas customers in 15 states and the District of Columbia. That represents 12 percent of the nation's total sales of natural gas.
Closely-held Amway, based in Ada, Mich., boasts a network of more than 3 million salespeople in North America who market about 450 consumer products categories ranging from nutrition to home living. The company sells thousands of other brand-name products through its catalogs.
Shares of Columbia Energy (CG) closed down 1-3/16 at 58-11/16 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. 
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