3.
THE INVISIBLE MAYBELLINE COMPANY - By Harris A. Neil Jr.
Anyone
who visited the facility we looked at in the previous section would
question how a dominant company in the cosmetics industry could
possibly operate out of such a “cracker box.” Well, the secret
had to be in the sprawling, nationwide network of suppliers and
private-label companies that supported the company’s packaging and
distribution activity. By careful vendor selection, scheduling and
follow-up, Maybelline could indeed make itself bigger by far than it
looked. It’s
beyond my recollection to go through all of the suppliers that made
up this extension of the company. It is, however, possible to look at
a few examples and companies that stand out:
Deluxe
Mascara,
as described by Sharrie Williams in The
Maybelline Story,
had been a part of Maybelline back in history, but was now a separate
company, located a few miles from the Maybelline building. Tom Hewes
and Jim Hughes, brothers-in-law, operated the company and supplied
all cake mascara to Maybelline. The market was not kind to cake
mascara, probably because liquid mascara dominated, so in a sense
Maybelline was not doing Deluxe any favors. There was no changing the
movements of the market, although cake mascara must have had its
loyal users, as it stayed in the line and sold in modest but
diminishing volume.
Avon
Products (yes,
that
Avon)
supplied Maybelline with Sable Brown cream mascara in all sizes, as
well as all shades of cream eye shadow. This was an historic
relationship, probably going all the way back to T. L. and Noel
Williams. At first Avon filled these products in their facility in
Middletown, N. Y., but soon after I started John was able to get them
to move this production to their local plant in suburban Chicago. The
two companies had a close relationship, and had a totally different
approach to the marketplace.
Plastofilm,
Inc.
provided all thermoformed blisters for our packaging operation. The
blisters were formed of butyrate plastic, although that’s not how
it started. Originally Plastofilm wasn’t even in the thermoforming
business. The founder was in the medical x-ray game, chemically
“washing” the photographic
surface from the acetate film for the
value of the silver it contained, and only later went into
thermoforming to reclaim the clear film. That explained why we’d
get a picture of a broken bone once in a while in their inbound
shipments. Nearly all packaging was blister-packed as time went on,
so our volume with Plastofilm was huge. Also, the blisters were a
high-cube commodity and strained our limited storage, so we ended up
with daily shipments from them as our volume grew.
Anchor
Brush Company,
another supplier that went back to T.
L.’s day, was a brush company as the name implies. However, over
time it also went into plastic molding, and ended up doing a wide
variety of packaging and product components for Maybelline. Think of
the Magic Mascara and Ultra-Lash caps and “barrels,” and that’s
the kind of thing they did.
Edwards
and Deutsch,
a Chicago printer, printed the classic white Maybelline cards with
the familiar “eye” in the upper left corner. We ordered large
quantities at a time, and they would send proof sheets as each run
started, for our inspection and approval. They’d cover my office
floor like so much linoleum, and we’d scan and measure them for
corrections or approval.
Those
are just a handful of examples of our national supply network. In
their cases and all others we’d place major annual requirements
orders, then “release” periodic smaller orders against the annual
order for ongoing production. The frequency of these orders varied,
from quarterly in low-volume packaging parts down to twice-weekly or
even daily for high volume, high-cube supplies.
Throughout
my tenure with the company, there was very little turnover among the
many suppliers. This in no small part was to John Cole’s credit,
who maintained good communications across the board and kept
misunderstandings to a minimum.
Thus
we see both the internal and the external side of the Maybelline
Company as I came into the picture in early 1959. Both of them would
keep me busy for the next nine-plus years.
Stay tuned tomorrow for part 4 of Harris A. Neil Jr.'s
"Chicago's Maybelline Story."
