O.C. Woman to Sell Shoe-Care Firm for $6 Million

Lisa Hill, who launched an Orange County shoe-care products business six years ago with a $25,000 investment, agreed to sell her company to a Toronto firm for $5.9 million.

“I feel fabulous,” Hill said Friday, shortly after Moneysworth & Best Shoe Care Inc., a Toronto marketer of shoe-care products, announced the deal.

Moneysworth agreed to pay $2.9 million in cash and notes and $3 million stock for Hill’s Adcor Products Inc. of Orange. The Canadian firm also may pay up to $2.3 million more if certain business goals are met.

Six years ago, Hill started Adcor in frustration over having to pay $7 each time she needed to have a pair of high heels repaired. She got the idea of selling the replacement tips directly to women so they could fix their worn heels themselves.

She invested $25,000 to make the first batch of replacement tips and talked mass discounters into selling them. Her suggested price: $2.99 for a package of six tips.

Hill later expanded her product line to include shoe polish, brushes, cloths, laces and cedar shoe trees. The company generated revenue of $3.2 million in the fiscal year ended July 31, she said.

The Moneysworth deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and completion of financing, is expected to close by mid-January. Hill said Moneysworth’s access to capital should help Adcor fill rising demand for its products.

Assuming the merger proceeds, Hill, 42, intends to remain with the company in a marketing and sales role. The company will also retain its 29 employees and may double its local work force by the end of next year, she said.

Moneysworth sells a line of shoe-care products through a network of 80 upscale shops it owns or has sold to franchisees across Canada. For the first nine months of this year, it posted a loss of $659,000 on $7.1 million in revenue.