Executive Suite: Robert Rubinger, Hauppauge

When the company that produces one of United-Guardian's main pharmaceutical products shut down production for six months last year, it could have been catastrophic. But United had diversified by creating another core product, a lubricant called Lubrajel now used as an ingredient by major cosmetic companies.

"We lost a lot of revenue in that time, but our presence in other fields made it not nearly as bad as it might have been," said the company's most veteran employee, Robert Rubinger, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Rubinger, 70, who started as an administrative assistant in 1967, describes United's presence in the skin-care market as "more evolutionary than revolutionary," inspired by a chance meeting with a distributor who needed a water-based lubricant that wouldn't stain hospital linens. Another meeting spread Lubrajel to the cosmetic industry, where it's now used in skin-care products, lotions and shampoos.

Primarily, that was a result of increases in Lubrajel sales for cosmetic uses.

We sell through distributors to virtually every large cosmetic company worldwide . . . Estée Lauder is a customer of our distributor, L'Oréal, Revlon, Almay, Avon, P&G [Procter & Gamble], etc.

I think one of the secrets is that we're small and, therefore, everybody knows everybody. We don't put people under a lot of pressure. They're not hounded . . . They do their jobs well and they feel comfortable in the environment. This country has been fraught with economic woes and yet in this time period we've thrived.

We've developed a bonus program that is, I think, the envy of everybody in the [Hauppauge Industrial Association] that knows about it. We give our merit raises in the form of a midyear bonus which is a lump sum given one time. It depends on the person . . . and their performance. The bonus may not be more than 5 to 10 percent, but in many cases it is significantly above 10 percent; they're substantial considering a lot of companies are on austerity and are likely not giving any raises at all.

We had to find a natural material that could provide viscosity and thickness to make it a gel and also provide moisturizing properties. It had to be a crystal-clear gel. We have a prototype product that comes close to what we want. Our last goal . . . is working on a [natural] preservative system.

Corporate snapshot