Iconic hairdryers, an eye for opportunity and a Brooklyn-born edge for entrepreneurship propel the Conair Corp. into its 50th year and 25th in Stamford.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell has declared Oct. 9, “Conair Day” to celebrate the company”™s half-century in business.
“My father started the company with his parents in Brooklyn,” said Babe Rizzuto, vice president of public relations at Conair. “My grandmother was a hairdresser when she came here from Sicily. She opened up a shop and my grandfather was an inventor, he started by creating hair clips, and mesh rollers, all items to help his wife in the salon industry.”
In 1959 Lee Rizzuto, CEO of Conair, and his parents launched Continental Hair Products. The company grew with facilities in Brescia, Italy, where Lee came upon the pistol-grip hairdryer.
“There were no hairdryers back then, you had a hard-hat dryer that you sat under for two hours to dry your hair and set it,” said Rizzuto.
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In discovering the pistol-grip in Italy, Lee Rizzuto brought it to China to be made there and sold it in the U.S. “Not only was it a cool item to reduce drying time, but it really revolutionized the salon business because it would reduce a two hour visit to 35 minutes,” said Rizzuto. “It propelled the salon”™s client base as to how many individuals they could handle each day. From that the story just became a timeline of products.”
Rizzuto said the family has the “Brooklyn sensibility” of entrepreneurship and tenacity.
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“Once the company became involved in the retail sector of the business, where we took the blow-dryer and the styling tools from the professional sector and made them available to retail, the company just blew-up,” she said.
Rizzuto pointed to the company”™s iconic Yellowbird blow-dryer as an example of an aesthetic than can be affected by products of a time.
“It was and is an icon in the salon business,” said Rizzuto. They are many more competitors out there now but we are still the leading market share in both the professional and retail sector. Just from there the way my father navigated the business and was able to acquire other companies.
The $2 billion company”™s manufacturing operation has grown over the years with such names as Cuisinart, Interplak, ConairPro, Conair, Jheri Redding, Pollenex, Thinner, BaByliss, Waring and Rusk.
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“When we bought Cuisinart, they were going into chapter 11,” said Rizzuto. “My father took the concept that he applied with Conair, taking professional to retail, in reverse with Cuisinart, taking the retail item that we took professional. I usually say our roots are in the salon. We”™re able to translate what we”™re doing on a professional scale into retail.”
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Conair moved its headquarters to Stamford in 1986.
“We were looking for a large facility to accommodate expansion in marketing and we landed in Fairfield County because there were advantageous tax purposes to being here, besides the beautiful area and proximity to the city,” said Rizzuto.
Rizzuto said being involved and part of the family-business environment is part of being in her family.
“It was always threaded and fused together,” said Rizzuto.
Rizzuto said her three siblings also help to run different parts of the Conair empire.
“We”™ve been primarily privately held,” said Rizzuto.
Lee Rizzuto took the company public in 1982, though bought back his majority stake.
“He”™s really a forward thinker,” Babe said of Lee. “My father”™s goal was to have a Conair item in every American household. Now it”™s in every household globally, and multiple products.”
Rizzuto said the current economy has created an advantageous situation for Conair; its large market share has enabled it to review expenses and ”˜tighten the belt”™ without laying anyone off.
“We”™re a $2 billion dollar corporation but are run like a family business,” said Rizzuto. “My father answers his own phone. I”™m grateful to have been raised in this environment and this way. It”™s very real and it gives you a genuine perspective.”
