Zippo Manufacturing Company - Introduction

Introduction

33 Barbour Street
Bradford, Pennsylvania 16701-1973
U.S.A.
Telephone: (814) 368-2700
Fax: (800) 362-3598
Web site: http://www.zippo.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1932
Employees: 777
Sales: $200 million (2004 est.)
NAIC: 339999 All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing; 339911 Jewelry (Except Costume) Manufacturing; 332211 Cutlery and Flatware (Except Precious) Manufacturing; 339941 Pen and Mechanical Pencil Manufacturing

Zippo Manufacturing Company is world famous for its Zippo windproof lighter, its lifetime guarantee, and the distinctive "click" it makes when opened. The company has sold more than 400 million lighters since its founding in 1932 and each year produces thousands of different designs, including ones aimed specifically at collectors. In addition to its trademark rectangular pocket lighter, the design of which has been little changed since its early 1930s launch, Zippo in 2002 introduced the MPL (or Multi-Purpose Lighter), a long, slender model designed to light candles, grills, fireplaces, and the like—a break from the traditional idea of the "cigarette lighter." The dominant maker of refillable lighters in the United States, with an estimated market share of 40 percent, Zippo also sells its lighters in more than 120 other countries, with Japan being its largest export market. Following the launch of a big overseas push in the mid-1980s, Zippo began to derive 60 percent of its sales from exports. Since diversifying for the first time in 1962 (when a tape measure was introduced), Zippo manufacturers and sells such items as pocket knives, money clips, and writing instruments. The company owns W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company, a venerable maker of high-quality pocket, hunting, fishing, camping, and utility knives that, like Zippo, is based in the small Allegheny Mountain town of Bradford, Pennsylvania. Another subsidiary, Zippo Fashion Italia S.r.l., based in Vicenza, Italy, produces a variety of Zippo-branded leather goods, including handbags, belts, wallets, and briefcases, for sale through more than 1,500 boutiques and shops in Europe.