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PE's BFF
Is Paris Hilton the new value add?
September 29, 2008
Clayton Dubilier & Rice portfolio company Sally Beauty is apparently the latest business to recognize a Paris bump.
In the company's most recent conference call, as pointed out by Footnoted.org, Sally Beauty CEO Gary Winterhalter was effusive in his praise for the hotel heiress, crediting Hilton's line of hair extensions for spurring significant increases to the company's store and website traffic.
"The impressions from print, television, and online media reached more than 185 million and we expect similar results as we roll out more Paris Hilton products," Winterhalter said in the third-quarter earnings call.
This isn't the first time Hilton has been called upon to bolster a company's bottom line. Tourneau, which currently resides in the Leonard Green & Co. portfolio, signed a deal in 2005 to serve as the exclusive retailer for Parlux's limited edition line of Paris Hilton Watches.
That effort, however, doesn't seem to have reaped the same rewards. The watch, priced between $100,000 and $150,000, can no longer be found on Tourneau's website, and Neil Katz, the CEO of Parlux (the company that makes the watches), referred to the Hilton-branded watches as "a breakeven kind of business."
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