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

personal care Personal care or toiletries are consumer products used in personal hygiene, personal grooming or for beautification. Products Personal care includes products as diverse as cleansing pads, colognes, cotton swabs, cotton pads, deodorant, eye lin ...

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 head hair. Hair clippers work on the same principle as scissors, but are distinct fro ...

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. Th ...

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, although unlike waxing, they do not remove cells ...

s, and haircare products. It is a subsidiary of

Spectrum Brands Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. is an American diversified company. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, it was established in 2005 as the successor company to Rayovac Corporation. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies, and among the largest of ...

and

Oak Hill Capital Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, with more than $19 billion of committed capital from entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Ro ...

History

The origins of the "Remington" name date back to the formation of

E. Remington and Sons E. Remington and Sons (1816–1896) was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, on March 1, 1873, it became known for manufacturing the first commercial typewriter. History The r ...

, a

firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

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

sewing machine A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the inv ...

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 Christopher Latham Sholes (February 14, 1819February 17, 1890) was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and, along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, has been contended to be one of the inventors of the first ...

persuaded the firearms company to help him develop the

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

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 left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, 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 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 Rand w ...

. Remington Rand branched out into making

adding machine An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous off ...

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 drawers in which items are stored. The two most comm ...

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

tabulating machines, and other

office equipment Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies o ...

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, amongst 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 1988–1991. He was well known for his turnaround of Remi ...

bought the electric shaver company in a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

. 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 (furniture), table-tops, C ...

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 majo ...

in Remington to

Ike Perlmutter Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter ( he, יצחק "אייק" פרלמוטר; born December 1, 1942) is an Israeli-American billionairehttps://www.forbes.com/profile/isaac-perlmutter businessman and financier. He is the chairman and former CEO of Marvel Enter ...

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."About Us"8/27/08 The firm, which was founded in 1988, is headquartered in New York City with offic ...

. Victor Kiam died in 2001. In 2003, the Kiam family and Vestar sold Remington to the

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

company Rayovac. Rayovac changed its name to

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 Geography *Märket, an ...

s Remington brand men's an
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, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

and

moustache A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...

trimmers, nose and ear hair trimmers,

foot massage Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...

rs, make-up

mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

s, heated hair rollers,

blow dryer A hair dryer, hairdryer or blow dryer is an electromechanical device that blows ambient or hot air over damp hair to speed the evaporation of water to dry the hair. Blow dryers enable better control over the shape and style of hair, by accelera ...

s, and

curling iron A hair iron or hair tong is a tool used to change the arrangement of the hair using heat. There are three general kinds: ''curling irons'', used to make the hair curly, ''straightening irons'', commonly called ''straighteners'' or ''flat irons'', ...

s. 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 American brands Hair removal Home appliance manufacturers of the United States Male grooming brands Personal care brands Shaving