Saving A Troubled Brand

Something was terribly wrong. It was the summer of 1995, and as Anne E. Robinson, 41, the new head of Caswell-Massey's wholesale division, took inventory at the toiletry company's cluttered Edison (N.J.) warehouse, she was shocked at the "disorderly mess" before her. A junkyard was more like it. Boxes of returned goods stretched out "three pallets deep and three pallets wide. You needed scuba gear to get into it," recalls Robinson. In another section, there were huge quantities of discolored and half-evaporated bottles, years past their expiration dates. Robinson began to wonder what she'd gotten herself into.

She had barely rolled up her sleeves at the now-$20 million purveyor of soaps, lotions, and potions, which dates from 1752. Her mission was to breathe new life into a famous old brand that had grown as obsolete as a powdered wig. But just now, a mere product makeover seemed a bit frivolous. She might as well have been offering a haircut to a heart attack victim.