Flamemaster : Blue-Collar Company Adds Chic
Flamemaster is used to making coatings, and the Sun Valley company finally is putting them on objects more sexy than cable and steel.
For years, the company has made heat-resistant coatings for electrical cables and airtight sealants for aircraft fuel tanks. Now, it is venturing into selling hot vermilion, fuchsia and crimson coatings for lips.
Flamemaster, which reported 1984 sales just under $3 million, is looking to diversify. It is in the process of purchasing a 20% stake in Sun Valley Cosmetics, a subsidiary of Advanced Packaging Techniques, a privately held manufacturer of beauty products sold under its own name and to big companies, including Max Factor and Redken. Its annual revenues are estimated at $2 million.
Unlikely Marriage
Flamemaster’s marriage to Sun Valley Cosmetics is one that doesn’t quite make sense to some people, akin to a grimy worker courting a classy uptown girl. Even the matchmaker who put it together, Frank Ures, president of American Pacific State Bank, acknowledged being a bit baffled.
“I don’t know what really made it click,” Ures said. “But it did.”
The two companies have launched what they hope will become a chain of stores called Shoes & Rouge, which will be operated by Falcon Wings International, a Flamemaster subsidiary. The first Shoes & Rouge store opened last month in North Hollywood, with Sun Valley Cosmetics supplying many of the products it offers--hoe brands including Nina’s, Jazz and Candies, and cosmetics including Neutrogena.
They plan to open two more stores in the San Fernando Valley by the end of the year, and to expand to the San Diego area in 1986.
‘The Perfect Fit’
It was at a VIP luncheon in February for favored customers of American Pacific that Joseph Mazin, Flamemaster’s president, met Norman Rutkin, Advanced Packaging Techniques’ chief executive. Ures suggested that the two companies might be compatible, and, indeed, the two executives hit it off right away.
“It was the perfect fit,” Mazin said. “My experience is in handling money. Rutkin’s is in cosmetics.”
Rutkin, who worked for Max Factor and Revlon before starting Advanced Packaging Techniques, said, “I think we can lend some glamour to them.”
Len Rothstein, an analyst for Oakwood Securities, a Beverly Hills brokerage firm, said Mazin had “always wanted to be a mini-conglomerate. He’s a creative guy who’s always looking for new ideas.”
Mazin’s business interests include having working control--or 15.3%--of Los Angeles-based Altius Corp., makers of storage cabinets and boxes for flammable liquids, hinges for refuse trucks and swinging doors used mostly in courtrooms. Altius owns 51% of Flamemaster after buying its interest in the company last summer for $1.2 million.
Improved Performance
Flamemaster has picked up steam since the deal with Altius. During the six months ended March 31, Flamemaster earned $59,247, or 8 cents a share, on sales of $1.87 million. It lost $59,757, or 8 cents a share, on $1.31 million in sales over the same period a year ago.
Competing against giant cosmetics manufacturers and prestigious department stores will not be easy, according to Rothstein. “They’ll have to undercut everybody,” he said. “They’ll have to place themselves in high-visibility places like shopping malls while undercutting everyone else.”
So far, that’s exactly what Mazin claims to be doing at his North Hollywood store in the Valley Plaza Shopping Center by selling the shoes and cosmetics at 20% to 25% off full retail price. The lower prices can be offered because of reduced overhead, Mazin said.
As for the risk of opening new stores with the novel shoes-and-makeup theme, Mazin said he prefers it to depending on government contracts. “If OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) changes their policy on flammable-liquid storage cabinets, we’re in trouble,” Mazin said. “I’d rather depend on women to buy shoes and cosmetics.”
