Phat
Hair Growth
by Jill Maunder
Never heard of Vogue International? Pay
attention, for this hair care product
upstart is challenging Wall Street ’s giants with a
hot,very hot, hip-hop line.
HAIR
STYLING WAS IN HIS FAMILY for
several generations and a combined total of
100 years, but Clearwater stylist Todd C.
Christopher got bored with cuts and took
what he knew about hair to head in a new
direction.
 |
Todd
C. Christopher Age: 41
Family: Married to Wanda Christopher, father of Tyler,
12; Jordan, 11; and Jade, 18 months.
Hobbies: Golf (12 handicap), fishing and boating with
his family on his 34-foot Donzi Z435. |
Tens
of millions of people around the world indirectly thank
Christopher for his career change each morning as they apply
his company’s gels, lotions and curling or straightening
treatments to their freshly washed hair. They’ve already
paid $4 to $6 per brightly colored product at a Walgreens,
CVS or Walmart store to applaud his upbeat entrepreneurial
efforts.
Christopher’s
Vogue International Inc., based unpretentiously in an industrial
park in Oldsmar, makes more than 60 salon-quality hair care
products– plus recently, a daring line of fragrances
– and sells them to mass merchandisers and food and
drug chains in 23 countries. Its FX Special
Effects
brand, priced at one-third to one-half the cost of similar
items sold at salons, is the No. 6-selling and second fastest-growing
hair styling product in the nation, according to IRI, an
independent market research firm. That brand is the mainstay
of company sales that reached $35.5 million in 2003.
That
was $5.6 million more
than the previous year’s sales
and almost triple those of five
years earlier. At the retail level, the numbers translate
to $59 million in sales in 2003, up $9 million from 2002
and nearly triple the sales of 1999.
Lean
and lithe Vogue (www.vogueintl.com) isn’t stopping
at that mark. A newly mapped strategic action plan foresees
a doubling of Vogue’s business in the next three years
by: • Increasing the number of products sold at existing
accounts, such as the powerhouse retailers cited above and
Eckerd Drug, Rite-Aid, Target and Albertsons. • Moving
into more supermarkets – especially Publix and Winn-Dixie
– as well as membership warehouse stores such as Costco
and Sam’s Club. • Expanding distribution to additional
nations, with Mexico and Great Britain the top priorities.
International sales in 2004 are targeted to increase dramatically
– that number could double or triple – as a part
of the firm’s growth strategies. Vogue has succeeded
because “we’re quick, creative and nimble,”
Christopher says. “When we see a trend evolving, we
can bring that product to market a lot faster than a Proctor
& Gamble can. If we see something (we like) in Europe,
we could be showing it (to buyers for retail groups) in
four weeks and have it to market in two to three months.
The big guys could take 18 months to two years.”
Vice
president of sales Sam Maniaci
credits Christopher’s positive outlook
for the agile corporate profile. “He gets
an idea and he’s not afraid to take a
chance on it,” says Maniaci, who has
worked with Christopher for nine years.
To notch up successes in an $8-billion
industry dominated by Wall Street
giants, “you have to be more cutting
edge … faster to market. You have to
not be afraid to jump in with new products.”
Christopher
exhibited the knack of daring to be bold upon starting his
company, first named Todd Christopher International, in
1987. He initially developed a Todd Christopher line of
salon products, marketing them through distributors. But
the transplanted upstate New Yorker, who moved to Pinellas
County at 21, became increasingly intrigued with the concept
of mass distribution. He had the chance to try it in 1993
when he invented the formula for a hair treatment capsule,
branded Pro-Vitamin.
Dubious
salon distributors told him
“you’re crazy,” Christopher recalls. He
believes the capsules were too novel at
the time. So he decided to go directly to
a mass audience and took the blue, gold
and purple capsules to St. Petersburg-based
Home Shopping Network to sell
on-air. The next step, six months later,
was taking Pro-Vitamin to its first store
group, Largo-based Eckerd Drug. Then,
other national drug chains added it.
“Because
it was successful and very unique and innovative, we were
well received at all of the national accounts,” Christopher
says. “That’s what catapulted us into these accounts.
These are difficult accounts to get into if you’re
not a Unilever or Proctor & Gamble.
If Pro-Vitamin
wedged the retail door
ajar, the FX line pushed it wide open in
1997, moving Vogue up in stature and
sales. FX selections, manufactured in
vivid fluorescent colors, have kicky
names – Straighten Out, Fat Hair,
Extreme Shine and the star of the line,
CurlsUp.
The
line’s Spiked Out veers to trendy styles worn by young
people. So do a line of sculpting products and Vogue’s
only coloring product, Color Freak. It temporarily turns
tresses “punk pink” or “purple haze”
or four other hues. “The teenagers have driven his
business,” says chemist Jesse Tovar, owner of Alabama’s
JVL Laboratories, which fills 1- million Vogue bottles a
month and counts Vogue as one of its top three customers.“The
names, the shapes of the bottles, kids love them …
though it’s really for all ages.”
He devises
new products himself or with input from a chemist like Tovar.
“After dealing with it for years,” Christopher
says, “you realize the benefits that different ingredients
have.”
The
company introduces 12 to 18 new
products a year and discontinues others.
Christopher was recently evaluating
whether to add a line of permanent hair
coloring products and preparing to
unveil a line of ethnic-oriented products.
Vogue
has been burned by some launches. Christopher pulled the
plug on a line of tanning products after average sales.
(Vogue sells returns to discounters, such as Big Lots, at
drastic markdowns or donates them to charities.)
Recently
Vogue’s first venture into
fragrances was a hit in Canada. The
Chemical: Attraction brand soared to
No. 4 of the top 10 selling fragrances
within nine months of its debut. Bottles
are labeled: “Wear if you dare! Contains
pheromones. May ignite a wild physical
attraction.”
Again,
Christopher focused on the hip-hop set. Scents for males
are Adrenaline, Ego Trip, Reckless and Extreme Rush; for
females, Flirtatious, Irresistible, Sexuality and Ecstasy.
It is
on hold for the U.S. and was introduced in Canada with the
participation of a distributor that regularly services product
displays in stores. That’s a critical component, Christopher
says, and one that 45-employee Vogue will not support in
personnel and overhead. He will try to forge agreements
with distributors that provide the servicing function so
Chemical: Attraction can enter the U.S.
The
company finances its expansion with internal cash flow,
chief financial officer Joseph LaHurd says. “The company
enjoys record-setting profit margins,” he says, but
declined to disclose specifics. “We’re projecting
20 percent or above revenue growth in 2004, both domestic
and internationally.”
Vogue
outsources all production. Filling of bottles and jars is
done at Tovar’s lab in Phenix City, AL, and the Stephan
Co. in Fort Lauderdale. R.P. Scherer, of St. Petersburg,
makes the Pro-Vitamin capsules. Assembly of their packaging
is handled at Vogue’s 40,000-square-foot headquarters
in Oldsmar.
Christopher,
who is Vogue’s president and CEO as well as sole shareholder,
is relinquishing some of his duties. “Because I’m
creative, I’m better outside of the office,” he
says. He looked for a chief financial/operations officer
for almost a year, eventually hiring CPA and finance veteran
LaHurd.
Vogue
is sold in 23 countries – including Australia, Pakistan
and Venezuela – but not being available in Mexico is
a sore point. (Point-of-sales research from stores in border
states shows Mexicans buy Vogue when they come to the U.S.,
Christopher says.) Prodding along expansion to the British
Isles is the long-range plan that, once Vogue has a distributor
in Britain, the way will be paved to move into Europe.
“When
we started doing business, it
was basically Todd Christopher wore all
the hats,” says Smith Container sales
executive Mike Long, who has sold
Vogue bottles and closures for more
than a decade. “He would order 50,000
or 100,000 of a bottle or a sprayer once
or twice a year. It’s just exploded. He
orders packaging components in the
millions several times a year.”
With
the three-year plan in place and his appetite for new products
still unsatisfied, Christopher doesn’t plan to change
much about Vogue besides its sales. Nor will he add investors
or consider going public. “I like to do what I do when
I want,” Christopher says.
“We
try to stay lean so we can make it
through the slow times. I want it to be
manageable but not too risky.”
