Former Duracell Executives Take Over

 The White Rain Line From Gillette

By Kaaren Valenta

Three former Duracell North America executives including its former president, Bruce Travis of Newtown, have joined forces as the management team of The White Rain Company of Danbury, a $110 million hair care company that markets such brands as White Rain, Adorn, Dippity-Do, Mink Difference, Tame, the Dry Look, and Toni.

Based in the Lee Farm Corporate Park in Danbury, The White Rain Company was established in April when Mr Travis, 56, negotiated the purchase of the seven product lines from the Gillette Company, which also owns the Duracell battery company.

“I’d been with the company for 24 years and had reached the point in my life where wanted to do something different – I wanted to find a company to buy,” Mr Travis said.

After Gillette moved part of the Duracell headquarters operations from Bethel to Boston, Mr Travis commuted there for almost a year, then approached Gillette in November 1999 about buying the hair care product line.

“Gillette had put the hair care business up for sale when it decided to sell all non-core businesses and focus on oral care and [razor] blades,” Mr Travis explained.

Mr Travis, who with his wife, Kimberly, owns Newtown’s largest equestrian facility, RedGate Farm in Newtown, spent the following months recruiting a management team for his new company. He brought on board Gary Raymond of Bethel as the new company’s president. Mr Raymond had spent 18 years at Duracell, where he was vice president of sales and strategic development, before joining Revlon a year ago as vice president of customer development.

 Another former Duracell executive, Maureen Gregory of Redding, is vice president of marketing for The White Rain Company.

The White Rain Company’s major shareholder is the Diamond Products company, a packager and marketer of private-label health, beauty, and household products, based in Tampa, Fla.

“[After negotiating with Gillette] I started looking for a manufacturing partner and formed a partnership with Diamond Products,” Mr Travis said. “Diamond will manage logistics and distribution for us and operate the manufacturing plant in Minnesota that we purchased from Gillette.”

 Launched in 1951 as a lotion shampoo, White Rain added other shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, and styling aids over the next three decades and was positioned as a price-value brand. In the mid-1990s the brand line was further extended into body washes and high-performance lines were added.  In 1997 the brand was reorganized under two umbrella names, Classic Care, consisting of traditional White Rain products, and Collections, including White Rain Plus, Essentials, Exotics, and Solutions. But significant price increases and diminished marketing support from Gillette caused the White Rain brand to lose market share, dipping to three percent of the total hair care market by 1999. White Rain is still the number five selling brand in the United States, used in 26 million households.

“In the mid-90s Gillette decided not to heavily invest in the hair care division,” Mr Travis said. “Over the last four years sales continued to erode as there was no advertising and marketing to support the brand. We intend to change that.”_Under the leadership of its new executive team, The White Rain Company has set an ambitious goal to increase sales to $500 million for all White Rain Company brands, including new products and acquisitions, by the year 2005.

“We saw a unique opportunity to concentrate our energies on the revitalization of the White Rain brand,” Mr Travis said. “While large packaged goods companies spread their focus across multiple brands that compete in many categories, The White Rain Company has the advantage of a singular focus – to provide high-quality hair care products to consumers at value prices. This gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to market forces and the needs of our retail customers. And while our initial focus will be on the White Rain brand, we will extend that focus to the company’s six other brands.”

Several marketing initiatives for the White Rain brand are in the works including new graphics design, new packaging, an aggressive advertising campaign, a newly designed company Web site, extensive public relations activities, and programs to build and strengthen retail trade partnerships.

In his previous position as president of Duracell North America, Bruce Travis established strategic alliances with major retailers, developed trade promotion strategies, and created a sales force that made Duracell the number one battery brand in North America. In his 24-year career with Duracell, he held such positions as vice president of sales and senior vice president of sales and distribution. He began his career with Proctor & Gamble’s Food Division, managing sales in its then emerging paper division.

Mr Travis is a member of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the International Mass Retailers Association, and the Food Marketing Institute. He serves on the board of directors of the Pegasus Program, a national organization which works to rehabilitate physically challenged children by teaching them to ride on horses. He and his wife, who have three grown children and four grandchildren, moved to Newtown from Redding in 1997, purchasing the former Norfield Farm for $1.2 million, undertaking extensive renovations, and renaming the property. 

As vice president of sales and strategic development for Duracell, Gary Raymond was responsible for more than $1 billion of the company’s sales volume. During his 18 years with the company, he managed national accounts in several trade classes including mass merchandisers (Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target), drug stores (CVS, Walgreen’s), and specialty outlets (Home Depot, Staples).

He was the youngest person in the company’s history to achieve the positions of regional manager and vice president of national accounts. He was responsible for leadership of the professional products division and formed a sales force specifically for the telecommunications industry. He also started Duracell’s category management department and managed Duracell’s trade marketing department.

Mr Raymond is a member of the Nielsen Advisory Board and is actively involved in community activities in Bethel, where lives with his wife, Mary, and their five children. He coaches baseball and basketball and serves on numerous school and parish-related boards.

Maureen Gregory spent five years at Duracell where she led the global product launch team for Duracell Powercheck while managing and developing marketing strategies and plans for three other major product lines. In a 20-year career she developed advertising and new marketing strategies for the Oil of Olay brand at Proctor & Gamble and was responsible for the international launch of Calvin Klein’s Eternity lines for women and men. She also spent two years with Estee Lauder International. After leaving Duracell, she served as an independent consultant and as president of Divacorp, her own strategic marketing and business development firm, focusing primarily on product development of personal care products for major packaged goods companies.

Ms Gregory volunteers for the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York and the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury, and is a member of the National Association of Female Executives. A motivational speaker, coach, and mentor to women in business, she lives in Redding with her husband, Herb.

This week former Ridgefield resident Ed DeGraan, who was a former executive vice president of the Duracell North Atlantic Group for Gillette, was named president and chief operating officer of the Gillette Company. He will be responsible for managing all Gillette product lines worldwide.