Helen of Troy Limited
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as |
NASDAQ: HELE S&P 400 Component |
| Founded | 1968 in El Paso, Texas |
| Headquarters |
Hamilton, Bermuda El Paso, Texas (operational) |
|
Key people
|
Founder Gerald "Jerry" Rubin |
| Products | personal care, electrical products |
| Revenue |
 USD 1.45 billion (2015) |
|
Number of employees
|
1,640 |
| Subsidiaries | OXO International |
| Website | www.hotus.com |
Helen of Troy Limited is a publicly-traded manufacturer of personal care electrical products under brands licensed from Vidal Sassoon, Revlon, Dr. Scholl's, Sea Breeze, and Vitapoint. It is also the parent corporation of OXO International and Kaz. The company is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, and its U.S. operations are headquartered in El Paso, Texas. The company is named after the historical or mythic figure Helen of Troy.
The company started as a wig store in Downtown El Paso in 1968. The company's foundation remains in hair appliances, a business it entered in 1975 by first supplying hair salons with hair dryers and curling irons. It continues to sell to the professional hairstyling industry. In 1980, the founder, Jerry Rubin, entered into a successful licensing agreement with Vidal Sassoon. Since then, the company's growth has come through years of acquiring rights to use well-known national brands for its hair-care products and other personal-care products, or by buying brands and companies outright. Those deals have made Helen of Troy a force in the personal-care products market.
The company underwent a notable tax inversion when it reorganized into a Bermuda company in 1993. This inversion prompted new Federal Legislation tightening the rules on inversion, which are colloquially known as the "Helen of Troy Rules."
In 2004, the company paid $273.2 million for OXO, a New York designer and maker of household gadgets. On Jan. 03, 2011, the company announced it has completed the acquisition of Kaz, Inc. for $271.5 million. Kaz made body thermometers, humidifiers, fans and other products mainly under the Vicks, Braun and Honeywell brands, and it owned brands like Stinger, Softheat and Kaz.
In 2014, Jerry Rubin stepped down as CEO, and was replaced by Julien Mininberg, of the company's Health Care and Home Environment Division.
Helen of Troy's sales were expected to exceed $1.1 billion in 2011, and the El Paso company's founder and CEO Gerald "Jerry" Rubin sees the company getting even bigger in the future with more acquisitions of brands and companies.
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Wikipedia