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Revlon (nyse: REV) is an American cosmetics company.

History

Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the REVLON name.

Starting with a single product — a new type of nail enamel — the three founders pooled their resources and developed a unique manufacturing process. Using pigments instead of dyes, Revlon developed a variety of new shades of opaque nail enamel. Successful in salons from the start, in 1937 Revlon started selling the polishes in department stores and drug stores. In six years the company became a multimillion dollar organization. By 1940, Revlon offered an entire manicure line, and added lipstick to the collection. During World War II Revlon created makeup and related products for the U.S. Army, which was honoured in 1944 with an Army-Navy Award for Excellence.

By the end of the war, Revlon listed itself as one of America's top five cosmetic houses. Expanding its capabilities, the company bought Graef & Schmidt, a cutlery manufacturer seized by the government in 1943 because of German business ties. This acquisition made it possible for Revlon to produce its own manicure and pedicure instruments, instead of buying them from outside supply sources.

In 1952 Revlon launched a lipstick shade called "Fire and Ice", which was heavily publicized over the radio with ads featuring Bob Hope and Red Skelton. By 1955, Revlon sponsored the CBS television show The $64,000 Question. The same year rival Hazel Bishop brought formal allegations of wiretapping. Revlon argued they monitored their employees' telephone calls for "training" purposes, but agreed to stop the practice. The same year Revlon reorganized as Revlon, Inc.

In November 1955, Revlon went public. The IPO price was $12 per share, but it reached $30 per share within 8 weeks.

In the 1960s, Charles Revson segmented Revlon Inc into different divisions, each focusing on a different market. He borrowed this stratedgy from General Motors. Each division had its own target customer: Princess Marcella Borghese was an upscale, international line; Ultima II was the premium line; Revlon was the largest, and popular-priced brand; Natural Wonder was aimed at the junior customer; Moon Drops was aimed at dry skins; and Etherea was a hypo-allergenic brand. There is an unsettled debate as to whether Estee Lauder stole Revson's idea and created Clinique, or the other way around. However, there is no debate which hypo-allergenic line became successful. Revlon's non-beauty ventures were not so successful, either.

In 1957, Revlon acquired Knomark, a shoe-polish company, and sold its shoe-polish line Esquire Shoe Polish in 1969. Other poorly chosen acquisitions, such as Ty-D-Bol, the maker of toiler cleansers, and a 27 percent interest in the Schick electric shaver company were also soon discarded. Evan Picone, a women's sportswear manufacturer which came with a price tag of $12 million in 1962, was sold back to one of the original partners four years later for $1 million. However, the 1967 acquisition of U.S. Vitamin and Pharmaceutical Corporation did make Revlon, for a while, a leader in diabetes drugs.