Conair history

Founded in 1959 in a garage in Queens, New York, Conair started out by selling hair rollers and then hair dryers.

Continental Hair suffered a setback when a fire in 1965 destroyed its underinsured Brooklyn quarters.

The company began recording remarkable and uninterrupted progress during 1968-69, however, when it developed and introduced hot combs, curling irons, and the first of a line of pistol-grip hair styler-dryers, which helped to popularize blow-dried hair styles.

Continental Hair also began selling retail lines of electric hair appliances in late 1971, when it introduced the "Conair Pro-Style" dryer.

Continental Hair's first venture into manufacturing as well as marketing its products occurred in 1972, when it purchased a one-third interest in a Hong Kong company.

Also in 1975, the company added personal care products to its line.

The company's name became Conair Corporation in 1976, when net sales reached $36.4 million and net income $2.2 million.

A 1977 strike at the Edison plant had set the target dates on some Conair products behind by six months to a year--a virtual lifetime in the hotly competitive market for personal care appliances.

Conair was able to unload its huge unsold Pro Baby inventory by using its component parts for the Pistol Power 1200, which by mid-1979 had become the hottest compact dryer on the market.

In late 1982 the company held 30 percent of market share in hair dryers, almost twice that of its nearest competitor.

Conair had bought Zotos in 1983 for $71 million.

1985: First leveraged buyout is accomplished through sale of junk bonds; company returns to private status.

Conair moved its headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut, and entered the kitchen appliance field, a market five times the size of personal care, in 1986.

As Conair’s reputation in the professional world rose, the company parlayed its success into the consumer market, persuading Macy’s to sell their products and eventually acquiring kitchen appliances firm Cuisinart in 1989.

At the National Houseware Manufacturers Association's show in January 1990, Conair introduced, in the personal care segment of its business, three high-fashion hairstyling products for the home, two compact products for easy storage and travel, and a facial sauna.

Of 1994 sales, personal care appliances accounted for 43 percent, consumer electronics for 29 percent, toiletries and professional salon products for 17 percent, and Cuisinart products for 11 percent.

In 1995 Conair acquired Babyliss, S.A., a manufacturer and marketer of personal care appliances, principally in Western Europe, for about $38 million.

Conair developed a line of massagers that included a chair cushion massager in 1996, and a foot massager based on the Japanese shiatsu method of pressure point massage, aptly named the Sole Doctor.

The company launched three new oral care appliances for the summer of 1998.

In March 1999 Conair's Cuisinart division signed a licensing deal with kitchenware company Ekco to make higher end kitchen tools under the Cuisinart name.

In January 2002 Holmes sold the brand Pollenex and its water related showerheads, and massagers to Conair for an undisclosed amount of money.

2003: Conair appeals $43 million judgment in patent infringement case, winning the appeal a year later.

Doctor Gaus attempted to further appeal the ruling by turning to the United States Supreme Court in August 2004, but Gaus's petition to the court was turned down.