OPI Products Inc. is reviving its Nicole nail polish and selling it in department stores across the U.S. and Canada with a major print ad campaign.
Until recently the North Hollywood-based nail-product company had sold its polishes exclusively to the professional beauty salon crowd, but in a recent push it is peddling a revived version of its Nicole by OPI nail polish in mass market retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreens.
About 10 years ago, the company first introduced the Nicole line in salons. At one point, the line was in 75,000 locations around the country. But sales fizzled and the brand was retired about six years later.
“The professional salon world doesn’t know how to handle two lines from any one company,” said George Schaeffer, chief executive of OPI Products.
Since then, OPI nail polish has been the company’s main focus. But about one year ago, the idea behind the Nicole line was rekindled, “by accident,” Schaeffer said.
He was trying to decide what to do with about 2 million empty Nicole nail polish bottles that had been sitting in storage for years. A friend of his suggested that he give the line another shot in Target.
“He told me, ‘Before you throw the bottles out, send them over and let me see what we can do with them.'”
Last year in June, the leftover bottles were filled with 21 shades and tested in 80 Target locations. The line was a success. The nail line was launched in Target in September and is being distributed at Wal-Mart, Walgreens and other stores around the U.S. and Canada.
At the end of last year, the company introduced another new product called Nic’s Sticks, an invention OPI had been working on for a number of years, as part of the Nicole collection, Schaeffer said. It looks like a tube of lip gloss and contains a small brush for painting nails or doing touch ups. It was first sold in Wal-Mart in December and this month was launched in Target, Walgreens and Longs. Shipments have already sold out at a number of locations.
“My production can’t keep up right now,” Schaeffer said.
The company is advertising the new products in magazines such as US Weekly and In Touch. Schaeffer plans to spend between $5 million and $6 million in advertising.
OPI Products was estimated to bring in well over $100 million in revenue in 2007, industry analysts said. The company also sells lipsticks, lotion, and pedicure accessories.
The Nicole line is named after Schaeffer’s daughter, now 22. Her signature was first introduced as the brand’s logo when she was 12.
Nicole products are at a slightly lower price point than OPI nail polish. A bottle of Nicole polish goes for $7.99 and the Nic’s Sticks retail for $6.99 each.
“Nicole is for a slightly younger audience,” Schaeffer said. “The formula is slightly different. The shades are different.”
With more than 400 employees at its headquarters, it is one of the largest employers in the San Fernando Valley.
Swanky Mall
Caruso Affiliated is filling up its 135,000-square-foot Waterside Marina del Rey property, which it acquired in 2004 and opened in 2005 after $11 million in renovations.
The developer of outdoor shopping centers, including the Grove and the future Americana in Glendale, is keeping the shopping center upscale with the addition of retailer BCBG Max Azria and spa Calidora Skin Clinic in the spring, and restaurants Sugar Fish and the Counter in the summer. The shopping complex will also get a Pinkberry in the spring.
The center is on Lincoln Boulevard between Mindanao Way and Fiji Way. The Waterside Marina del Rey already includes stores like M. Fredric, White House/Black Market, and Brighton Collectibles.
News & Notes
Sizzler is up for sale. Earlier this month, Australia-based Pacific Equity Partners decided to sell the American-style family steakhouse chain, which it bought in 2005 from Worldwide Restaurant Concepts for $210 million, and took it private.
At the same time, chief executive of Culver City-based Sizzler USA, Ken Cole, resigned to become chief executive of Quaker Steak and Lube. Cole’s successor will be Kevin Perkins, former Sizzler president and current CEO of Collins Foods Group.
Pacific Equity Partners hopes to sell the chain within six months and says day-to-day operations won’t change. L.A.-based Houlihan Lokey was hired to find a buyer. The buyer of the 300-restaurant chain will likely be an American company .
Disney Consumer Products premiered Walt Disney Signature, a home furnishings and lifestyle brand inspired by Walt Disney, this month at the L.A. Mart Design Center’s Haptor Barrett showroom.
The furniture, designed by North Carolina-based Drexel Heritage, has a feel from the 1930s and ’40s. Disney gave Drexel Heritage access to the Disney archives for colors, art, photography, and design details from the creator’s original work. Disney Consumer Products is a business segment of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co .
Cherokee Inc., a Van Nuys-based licensor and manager of several of its own clothing lines, recently launched its Cherokee clothing line in Chile in Falabella’s Tottus Stores, with more international launches planned.
Staff reporter Sarah Filus can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235, or
[email protected]
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