In this LI biz, beauty is as beauty does
Dal LaMagna is the founder of Port Washington-based Tweezerman Corp. He sold the company in 2004. (Dec. 21, 2004) Credit: Newsday/Michael E. Ach
Lots has changed at Port Washington-based Tweezerman Corp., the grooming supply company, since Dal LaMagna - who founded it in 1980 on $500 - sold it in 2004 to Zwilling J.A. Henckels AG, the German maker of high-class cutlery, for $50 million.
About the biggest change at Tweezerman, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, is that LaMagna is no longer around, living now in Washington state. (He ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice, once against Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), in 2000. Three years later LaMagna ran for president. He lost.) Cornelia Wittke, who spent seven years with consulting giant McKinsey & Co. before coming to Tweezerman International in 2006, is now president and chief executive. She works at the world headquarters in Port Washington.
Privately-held Tweezerman was believed to be a company with annual sales under $40 million when LaMagna sold it. Industry sources say sales are now about $100 million. It employs about 114 people in Port Washington, somewhat fewer than in LaMagna's day due to productivity improvements.
But something has not changed: Tweezerman was conceived by LaMagna as a "socially conscious" company. It still is. The company continues to contribute to a host of causes, including the Humane Society, Breast Cancer Awareness, Dress for Success and Habitat for Humanity.
LaMagna would be happy. As he once said, "The company is doing it all."
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