Leandro Rizzuto

Leandro Rizzuto - A Snap Shot

On March 10, 2010, Forbes ranked the 71-year old Leandro Rizzuto as the 616th billionaire in the world for his self-earned fortune of 16 billion US dollars. Leandro was also featured on the Forbes list of billionaires in the year 2008.

Rizzuto’s Personal Life

Leandro Rizzuto’s father, Julian Rizzuto wanted his son to qualify first before venturing into any business. On the contrary, Leandro was a dropout from St. John’s College in New York and started pursuing his interest to become an entrepreneur. Leandro currently resides in Sheridan, Wyoming and he has 4 children.

Rizzuto’s Continental Success

In 1959, Leandro and his father, Julian Rizzuto, established Continental Hair Products, Inc. Rizzuto family invented “machineless permanent wave”, a chemical process to replace electric hair curlers. Unfortunately, the business did not survive for a long period. When the business collapsed, father and son initiated Continental Hair in Brookyln basement to produce premium hair dressing products. The business was founded with an initial start-up investment of $100. Until 1965, there was no significant raise in the profit. After the demise of Julian Rizzuto, Leandro independently handled the show to develop the company to a level what it is now. Since 1968, the growth of Continental was remarkable and uninterrupted. New products such as hot combs, pistol-grip hair styler-dyers, and curling irons were launched at the same time in the market. There was a tremendous response to these products and traditional hair care products were sidelined. After 1971, Leandro’s Continental began to sell retail lines of electric hair appliances. Since 1968, sales started growing up from $1.1 million to $12.6 million. In 1973, the Net income catapulted from $52,000 to $910,000.

Continental Goes Public

In the year 1972, the company came forward offering stock to raise funds. But, management was holding the majority of the shares, Sales shot up to $ 24.7 million with a net income of $1.9 million, which is almost double the value of sales in 1973. During 1975-76, the Continental Hair Products marked remarkable sales of $36.4 million and a net income of $2.2 million. The management decided to rename and register Continental as Conair Corporation.

Leandro Rizzuto’s Conair Corporation

The principle products of Conair Corporation remained the same but with slight variations in models. More than 100 seminars and marketing techniques were conducted to promote the products and to boost the sales. Conair Corporation has topped in sales and made Forbes to name Leandro as one of the world’s richest men.

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Leandro Rizzuto - Forbes Profile

Conair corportaion Website

Leandro Rizzuto Biography