Remington Products, commonly known as simply Remington, is an American

personal care Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity, in order to make ...

brand which manufactures

hair clipper A hair clipper, often individually called the apparent '' plurale tantum'' hair clippers (in a similar way to ''scissors''), is a specialised tool used to cut human hair. Hair clippers work on the same principle as scissors, but are distinct f ...

electric shaver An electric shaver (also known as the dry razor, electric razor, or simply shaver) is a razor with an electrically powered rotating or oscillating blade. The electric shaver usually does not require the use of shaving cream, soap, or water, kno ...

epilator An epilator is an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. The way in which epilators pull out hair is similar to waxing, but unlike waxing, they do not remove skin cells ...

s, and haircare products. It is a subsidiary of Spectrum Brands and Oak Hill Capital.

History

The origins of the "Remington" name date back to the formation of E. Remington and Sons, a

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

maker founded in 1816. E. Remington & Sons made occasional forays into products other than firearms, such as

sewing machine Diagram of a modern sewing machine Animation of a modern sewing machine as it stitches A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolutio ...

s and

farm implement Agricultural equipment is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. The best-known example of this kind is the tractor. Tractor and power *Tractor / Two-wheel tractor * Tracked tractor / Caterpillar tractor Soil cultiv ...

s—but its most significant side venture was when inventor Christopher Sholes persuaded the firearms company to help him develop the

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

with the

QWERTY QWERTY ( ) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: . The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sh ...

keyboard, which is still the standard today. In 1886, E. Remington & Sons sold the typewriter company, which became Remington Typewriter Company. This, in turn, merged with the Rand Kardex Corporation in 1927 to become

Remington Rand Remington Rand, Inc. was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington ...

. Remington Rand branched out into making

adding machine An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. Consequently, the earliest adding machines were often designed to read in particular currencies. Adding machines were ubiquitous office ...

filing cabinet A filing cabinet (or sometimes file cabinet in American English) is a piece of office furniture for storing paper documents in file folders. In the most simple context, it is an enclosure for drawer (furniture), drawers in which articles are sto ...

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widel ...

tabulating machines, and other

office equipment Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, required to sustain office operations. For example, office supplies may be used by individuals engaged in written communications, rec ...

to become a leading office equipment company. The origin of Remington personal care products dates back to 1937 when Remington Rand began to branch out to

s, starting with the Remington Model E. In 1950, Remington Rand bought the pioneering Eckert–Mauchly Computer Company. In 1955, it merged with

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

, developer of the

automatic pilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...

, among other devices. The combined company became the

Sperry Rand Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

and continued to market shavers under the Remington brand. In 1979, Sperry Rand sold off a number of its divisions, including the consumer products.

Victor Kiam Victor Kermit Kiam II (December 7, 1926 – May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988 New England Patriots season, 1988–1991 New England ...

bought the electric shaver company in a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

. Victor Kiam's Remington Products Company became very profitable, branching out into other personal care

small appliance A small domestic appliance, also known as a small electric appliance or minor appliance or simply a small appliance, small domestic or small electric, is a portable or semi-portable machine, generally used on table-tops, counter-tops or oth ...

s, buying

Clairol Clairol is the American personal care-product division of company Wella, specializing in hair coloring and hair care. Clairol was founded in 1931 by Americans Joan Gelb and her husband Lawrence M. Gelb, with business partner and lifelong frien ...

's personal care appliance business in 1994. Kiam sold his

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the maj ...

in Remington to Ike Perlmutter prior to the Clairol acquisition that same year. Remington changed hands again in June 1996 when Perlmutter and Kiam sold their controlling interest in the company to

Vestar Capital Partners Vestar Capital Partners is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout transactions in middle-market companies in the United States. The firm, which was founded in 1988, is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, Ma ...

. Victor Kiam died in 2001. In 2003, the Kiam family and Vestar sold Remington to the battery company Rayovac. Rayovac changed its name to Spectrum Brands and

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

s Remington brand men's and women's electric shavers,

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, beards are most commonly seen on pubescent or adult males, though women have been observed with beards ...

and

moustache A moustache (; mustache, ) is a growth of facial hair grown above the upper lip and under the human nose, nose. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French language, French, and i ...

trimmers, nose and ear hair trimmers, foot massagers,

make-up Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources or created syn ...

mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...

s, heated hair rollers, blow dryers, and curling irons. Remington also sells flat irons.

Products

Air Plates, ProLuxe, Rose Pearl, Keratin Radiance, Wet2Straight, Shine therapy, Colour protect, Ceramic 210, Ceramic Slim 230, Pro ceramic Extra, Protect, Sleek and Smooth Remington Products' product line includes Lady Remington, electric shavers for women.

TV commercials

The president of Remington shavers in 1978: "When my wife bought me a Remington shaver, I was so impressed I bought the company".

would often appear in television advertisements for Remington shavers and say: "Shaves as close as a blade, or your money back!""I liked the slogan so much..." BBC News. May 30, 2001. Retrieved July 11, 2012.

References

External links

* {{Official, http://www.remingtonproducts.com Products introduced in 1937 American brands Hair removal Home appliance manufacturers of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 Male grooming brands Personal care brands Shaving Remington Rand