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Avon Product history
Avon Product company history timeline
In September 1886, he decided to sell perfumes rather than books.
In 1886, 34 years before women in the United States earned the right to vote, Avon's founder, David H. McConnell, helped give them the chance to earn an independent income.
In 1887, just one year into his perfume business, McConnell, thanks to Albee, recruited a team of 12 female representatives to market his 18-piece fragrance line.
California Perfume issued its first product catalog in 1896, which contained descriptions of items but no photographs.
In 1897 they built a laboratory in Suffern, New York.
By 1900 the company had over 6,000 representatives with sales of more than $200,000.
In 1905 the company launched Outlook magazine, a publication for sharing advice to employees and keeping representatives up-to-date on company news.
On May 3, 1909, the California Perfume Company corporate office moved to 31 Park Place, New York.
But, just as the California Perfume Company was getting off the ground, the first automobiles were being invented and times began to change for traveling salesmen (and women). In 1911, Effie Miller of Oregon won a new Brush Runabout automobile for being the CPC's number one sales agent.
By the company's 20th year, its product line had expanded to include more than 100 items, and in 1914 the company's rapid expansion was marked by the opening of an office in Montreal, Canada.
On January 28, 1916, the California Perfume Company was incorporated in the state of New York.
By 1920, annual sales revenue had topped $1 million.
Never wavering from its strategy of door-to-door sales and catalogs filled with low-cost home and beauty products, the company surpassed the $2 million sales mark in 1926, the year of its 40th anniversary.
The company launched three-week sales campaigns and a "specials" strategy in 1932.
Five years later, in 1937, McConnell died and was replaced by his son, David H. McConnell Jr., who headed the company for the next seven years.
On October 6, 1939, the California Perfume Company changed its name to Avon Products Inc.
In 1939, David McConnell Jr. changed the company's name to Avon Products, Inc., in honor of his father's love for playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
In 1944, W. Van Alan Clark replaced McConnell as the company's chairman.
Its annual sales jumped to $55 million by 1954, and the company now offered more than five hundred products.
Although Avon waited another 40 years before expanding beyond North America, it began entering international markets aggressively in 1954, adding Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
Around that same time (1955), The Avon Foundation was established with the mission of promoting humanitarian efforts for women, and today focuses mostly on fighting breast cancer and domestic violence.
Sales representatives’ territories were downsized by several hundred homes, a strategy that enabled more representatives to be added and sales to increase sixfold over the following 12 years. It also penetrated the European market in 1957 with the institution of Avon Cosmetics, Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
Amway history, profile and corporate video Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos, a pair of direct sales veterans, launched Amway in 1959.
By 1959 Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom enjoyed the ability to purchase Avon products.
In 1959, operations began in the UK and today AVON is one of the top 3 beauty brands in the country with a growing share in the UK beauty market.
The company's United States revenues reached $250 million in 1963 with an additional $33 million coming from overseas sales.
Under the leadership of W. Van Alan Clark, Avon also saw changes such as the rapid expansion of foreign sales and Avon's listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1964.
Clark was replaced by J. A. Ewald in 1966, who was followed by W. Hicklin a year later.
By 1970, sales in the United States reached $750 million and the product line had increased to eight hundred items.
By 1978 Avon had more than 1 million representatives; that same year Avon began its sponsorship of women's sporting events.
Hayes, Linda, “The Changes in Avon’s Makeup Aren’t Just Cosmetic,” Fortune, August 13, 1979.
In 1979, Avon made another strategic move to update its product offerings through the purchase of Tiffany & Company, the upmarket jeweler, for $104 million.
Sales reach $3 billion by 1979, spurred by expansion into Hong Kong, Thailand, the Ivory Coast, the Philippines, New Zealand, El Salvador, Malaysia, and Chile.
In an effort to enhance its image, Avon acquired Tiffany Jewelry in 1979.
Avon's purchase of Tiffany's proved to be a bad investment and the company was sold in 1983.
Waldron followed this purchase with the acquisition of Foster Medical Corporation in 1984.
At the same time, Tiffany's profits were steadily declining--in part because customers had become alienated by the introduction of lower-priced merchandise--and the Tiffany subsidiary was sold in 1984.
Avon then tried to focus on health care for the elderly with the 1985 acquisitions of the Retirement Inns of America and The Mediplex Group, both of which were nursing home operations.
Waldron retired in 1989, and his successor, James E. Preston, immediately faced several takeover attempts.
In 1989, a new chief executive officer (CEO), James Preston, was hired to get the company back on track.
Strapped for cash, Avon then sold Parfums Stern in early 1990.
These measures helped the company increase 1990 sales to $3.45 billion, marking an increase of over $150 million from the previous year.
In 1990, Avon became the first major United States cosmetic manufacturer to stop testing its products on animals.
Avon entered the sales market in Poland in 1992 through the recruitment and training of more representatives to work in direct sales capacities there.
It also opened a women's cultural center in Japan. It followed with the Avon Worldwide Fund For Women's Health, which has raised about $10 million a year since 1992.
In 1993, the company launched its fund-raising Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade.
In 1994, Avon sold off its Giorgio product line, which was becoming a less important asset as time went on. It further strengthened its standing in the foreign market in 1995 with the addition of a sales office in India, and the acquisition of Justin (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa, the country's second largest direct-selling cosmetics company.
In 1996, Avon served as the exclusive cosmetics sponsor for the Olympics and embarked on a marketing campaign using well known athletes as "Just another Avon Lady." Avon also began offering goal setting seminars and services for women, a program called Avon LifeDesigns.
South Africa was added to the growing list in 1996, marking Avon's first presence on the African continent.
With sales of 40 million dolls in 1996, Avon's Barbie dolls were the biggest product launch in the company's history.
morris, betty. "if women ran the world it would look a lot like avon." fortune, 21 july 1997.
Realizing that the future of the company was with young girls who were enjoying the special-edition Avon Barbie dolls, Avon created a cosmetics line that the girls could use on their Barbies as well as on their own bodies. Based on the success of the Avon Barbie dolls, Avon created a line of doll cosmetics in 1997.
As of mid-1998, Avon's net income for the year was $266.5 million.
As of mid-1998, revenues for fiscal year 1998 were already $5.17 billion, increasing for the ninth year in a row.
In 1998, Avon launched a new women's magazine, Athena, in conjunction with publisher Hachette Filipacchi.
While company stock had increased by 70 percent since her election to CEO in 1999, it began to fall after the September 11th terrorists attacks on the United States Consumer spending slowed, and foreign markets such as Argentina faltered due to economic crises.
The emphasis on change gained momentum in 1999 when Jung became CEO, the first woman ever to lead the company.
Under her leadership, Avon began its brand turnaround and also focused on bolstering United States revenues, which accounted for nearly 30 percent of company sales in 2000.
In a 2000 interview with Chief Executive, she commented that the Internet would make doing business easier, but she also acknowledged that "person-to-person selling in cosmetics is very important.
In early 2002, the company laid off nearly four thousand workers in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico in a move to increase its profits.
Brazil is the company's largest market, passing the United States in 2010.
Avon purchased Silpada, a direct seller of silver jewelry, in 2010 for $650 million.
In May 2012, perfume company Coty, Inc. offered $24.75 a share for Avon, which was nearly 20 percent above Avon's stock price at the time.
88% of Avon's 2013 revenue (around $10 billion) came from overseas markets.
In 2014, Avon's global sales had fallen for five straight years, and its North American revenues fell 18% that year.
In March 2016, Cerberus Capital Management paid $435 million in cash for preferred stock in Avon Products.
Jan Zijderveld was appointed the company's CEO in February 2018.
The former CEO, Sherilyn S. McCoy, stayed on as an adviser to the Board and to Zijderveld through March 31, 2018.
In 2019, the Brazilian beauty company Natura agreed to buy Avon Products for more than $2bn via a share swap, creating the world's fourth-largest beauty company.
In January 2020, Natura &Co closed the acquisition of Avon Products, Inc.
In June 2020, a new logo of Avon was released.
In January 2021, New Avon Company announced its corporate name change to The Avon Company.
"Avon Products, Inc. ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/avon-products-inc-0
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Avon Product competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revlon | 1932 | $2.0B | 5,700 | 25 |
| Sephora | 1970 | $10.0B | 28,540 | 762 |
| Nordstrom | 1901 | $15.0B | 74,000 | 1,076 |
| Gillette | 1901 | $84.0B | 101,000 | 2 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1886 | $88.8B | 134,500 | 1,842 |
| Ralph Lauren | 1967 | $6.6B | 18,250 | 451 |
| GUESS | 1981 | $3.0B | 14,701 | 212 |
| Vudu | 2004 | - | 180 | - |
| American Eagle Outfitters | 1977 | $5.3B | 37,000 | 1,186 |
| Gap Inc. | 1969 | $15.1B | 117,000 | 43 |
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