Helen Of Troy buys up salon personal care provider

Belson is one of the largest distributors of salon personal care products in the US,Canada and the UK, distributing its products to major beauty suppliers and other major distributors on a nationwide basis. The terms and conditions of the acquisition were not revealed, although Belson had sales of $54.9 million in 2005, which works out at roughly 10 per cent of Applica's tota. It concentrates on the supply of hardware products for the professional hair care industry, including combs, hairdryers, clippers, curlers and spa products, with brand names such as Belson Pro, Gold 'n' Hot, Curlmaster and Shear Technology. Until now Belson has been a major competitor for Helen Of Troy in this segment, so the acquisition should help it to carve out a much bigger market share as well as giving it more control in the segment. Speaking about the acquisition and what it meant to the company, Gerald Rubin, Helen Of Troy CEO said: "They have an excellent portfolio of professional salon products, and this addition to our existing Helen of Troy professional products will continue to strengthen our leadership position in the professional distribution channels." ​ Rubin is hoping that the acquisition will take the company's annual sales in excess of $700m a year, while for the current fiscal year 2007, it is sticking to estimates that it will exceed sales of $660m. Helen Of Troy has established itself as one of the leading distributors of salon care personal care products in the North American market, and already has a comprehensive portfolio that includes hair dryers, curling irons, iron setters, brushes and hair accessories, together with liquid hair styling products, body powder and skin care products under licensed trade marks including Vidal Sassoon, Revlon and Sunbeam. It also has a houseware division that merchandises items for categories such as kitchen, cleaning, barbecue and hardware. In March of this year Helen of Troy restructured its business as a means of more clearly defining its personal care and housware sectors. As a result the company's sales functions have been organized into two groups, a retail personal care division and a professional division - making a clearer division between these two very different field.