How many zippos have been sold

Chamber Finder. Interested in partnering with us? Media Kit. Zippo lighter — Zippo You may not think too much about lighters. Blaisdell liked the word. Since , the only time Zippo lighters have not been available on the open market in the United States was during World War II, when Zippo Manufacturing sold its product exclusively to the U. The ad featured a pin-up girl named "Windy"and discussed the many practical qualities of the Zippo lighter.

It also challenged you to take the fan test, as Zippo lighters are known to be windproof. Since WWII, every naval ship has had its own Zippo lighter that depicts a picture of the ship, along with its name and number.

Zippo produced its ,,th lighter in September ; If laid end-to-end, those million Zippo lighters would stretch halfway around the equator. Twenty-one percent of all Zippo lighter owners are collectors. There are roughly 20 collector clubs worldwide. A message from. Discover how 45, CEOs are growing their businesses.

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Contact U. Ownership of Zippo Manufacturing passed to Blaisdell's daughters, Harriet Wick and Sarah Dorn, who had worked for the company for years and would continue to do so for years to come but did not wish to run it. They entrusted the presidency to a longtime employee, Robert Galey. The firm was manufacturing-oriented and needed to become more marketing-focused in order to get past this plateau.

As it turned out, Galey's stint as president was short-lived since he retired in Zippo's third president was Michael Schuler, who had joined the company as controller shortly after Blaisdell's death and then was promoted to vice-president and controller in Under Schuler's leadership, Zippo's revenues increased five-fold within ten years. On the export front, Japan remained the top market—one of every four Zippos made in the late s went to Japan—and Western European sales were strong also, but Schuler targeted such emerging areas as China and South Asia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism.

Many of these emerging nations had high percentages of smokers, making them prime Zippo territory. This contrasted sharply with Zippo's domestic market, where antismoking crusades continued to gain momentum throughout the s.

Overall, whereas exports constituted only 40 percent of total company sales in the mids, by 65 percent of sales originated outside the United States. Credit for Zippo's "discovery" of the collector's and gift markets for Zippo lighters goes to the person Schuler hired in as head of sales and marketing, James Baldo.

Soon after taking the job, Baldo commissioned customer surveys that showed that 30 percent of Zippo's customers defined themselves as "collectors. Then Zippo began offering limited edition "collector" Zippos, directly targeting the collector's market. In , a 60th anniversary lighter appeared, followed by 's Varga Girl lighter, 's D-Day commemorative lighter, 's Mysteries of the Forest, and 's Zippo Salutes Pinup Girls.

Zippo also began producing a collector's guide and, starting in , sponsored an annual July swap meet at the Bradford headquarters. In the company took the further step of opening in Bradford the Zippo Family Store and Museum, highly popular with collectors, which was expanded to five times its original size in Zippo had been criticized at times throughout its history for being too conservative, in particular in regard to line extensions.

But under Schuler, Zippo began a more aggressive diversification approach, beginning in with the acquisition of the cross-town W. Case was founded in in Little Valley, New York, but relocated to Bradford in , where it developed a line of pocket knives, hunting knives, household cutlery, and commemoratives.

The company had filed for bankruptcy after a difficult period and then was bought out of bankruptcy by a limited partnership, River Associates, in Case's products meshed well with Zippo's and provided Zippo with another avenue into the retail market. A much more dramatic extension came via the license agreement with Japanese clothing manufacturer Itochu Fashion System Co.

Itochu gained the right to the Zippo name and soon offered Zippo jeans, gloves, and leather jackets in Japan. With antismoking forces gaining steam in the United States, Zippo came up in with a creative way to keep its brand strong.

It introduced the ZipLight pocket flashlight, which was simply a traditional lighter casing with a replaceable battery pack inside. The Zippo brand, prematurely declared dead by USA Today in , was clearly alive and well and seemed as ubiquitous as ever. The company was now producing 80, lighters a day, and the millionth Zippo lighter rolled off the assembly line that year.

Unfortunately for the company, turned out to be a peak year, as sales dropped off in the late s and into the new century. Zippo's diversification drive, including the heavily promoted ZipLight, never produced any big winners, and even the push into the collectibles market, while meeting with the approval of many customers, failed to nudge sales higher. Certainly in the U. Finally, the muddled ownership situation was another key hindrance. The two daughters of the founder, plus their four children, all had equal control of the company, and all worked there as well.

Having six persons equally in charge made it difficult for Zippo to adopt new strategies and led to a certain malaise, particularly following some of the failed attempts to ramp up sales. One of the grandchildren of the founder, George B.

Duke, began negotiating to buy out his relatives in By he, along with his mother, Sarah Dorn, had gained control of the company. The new owner and new manager soon commissioned studies by two outside consulting firms, both of which reached the same conclusion, that the Zippo brand was extremely strong and that there were tremendous possibilities for creating a broader line of Zippo products through licensing deals.

Based on this research, and to counter the antismoking trends that were hurting sales of lighters, Duke and Booth set an ambitious goal of deriving half of the company's revenues from products unrelated to tobacco by They also aimed to double the company's overall revenues by that same year. Ironically, the first new product to come out of this new strategy was in fact a lighter—just not a traditional cigarette lighter.

The MPL was part of the rapidly growing multipurpose lighter category, but it was the first premium refillable model on the market. With its adjustable flame, the MPL was designed to light candles, lanterns, grills, fireplaces, stoves, campfires, and more. In another break with tradition, Zippo contracted with a Chinese company to make the MPL, but it nonetheless backed it with the usual lifetime guarantee. The company continued to make its traditional pocket lighters in Bradford, despite increasing cut-price competition from low-wage countries.

Sales of the MPL got off to a good start, with about two million units sold the first year—far exceeding company expectations. Even more encouraging than the numbers, however, was that the people buying the new lighter skewed mostly female and younger than the average Zippo customer. The MPL's child-resistant safety button was seen to be a key feature in attracting female buyers.

Unfortunately, in October Zippo was forced to recall about , MPLs because in some cases fuel was spilling out of the nozzle when the lighter was first used. The company set up a system to send out replacement lighters to consumers who had purchased the affected models.

At the same time, Zippo was developing for release in a second version of the MPL, one geared to outdoor use when hiking or camping, for example, and featuring a more durable, windproof design and a built-in flashlight. While launching the MPL, Zippo also continued to pursue opportunities in the collectors market.

In the company founded an international club for Zippo collectors, Zippo Click, naming it after the distinctive sound of a Zippo lighter opening. Just a couple years after its formation, Zippo Click had gained more than 7, members. There were also by this time dozens of independent lighter collectors' clubs with thousands of members around the world.

In September Zippo Manufacturing reached another milestone with the production of its millionth lighter. That same year, the company elected to consolidate its North American production in Bradford by shutting down the plant in Niagara Falls, Canada, which had been producing about , lighters per year for the Canadian market. Also, Zippo was the subject of criticism that year stemming from its sponsorship of a web site, zippotricks. The National Fire Protection Association and others in the fire safety industry contended that the company, through the web site, was encouraging people to play with fire.

Although Zippo officials disagreed with this criticism, they pulled the plug on the site under withering pressure. The web site's original creator subsequently transformed it into the more generic lightertricks. In the early s Zippo's leaders were becoming increasingly concerned about the production of cheap knockoff lighters, many of which were being made in China.

The company estimated that it was losing as much as a third of its potential worldwide sales to counterfeiters, particularly factories in southern China that were capable of churning out 45, fake Zippos a day. Zippo therefore accelerated an effort to trademark the distinctive shape of its lighter—a rectangular metal shell with beveled edges and a gently curving flip-top—around the world.

June 3rd, - Zippo, the iconic American brand and creator of the windproof lighter , has reached a milestone moment with the production of its millionth windproof lighter. To mark this historic event, Zippo is launching an exclusive limited-edition design.

With only 20, available worldwide, fans can also expect premium packaging with a mirrored foam insert and a vibrant coordinated box and sleeve for a truly one of a kind memento. All windproof lighters produced on the day, including other designs, will be stamped with a commemorative bottom stamp that collectors can proudly add to their displays.

The Zippo lighter has become a cultural talisman, from supporting the American military in World War II, to a starring role in more than 2, films, and the unforgettable moment of thousands of glowing Zippo lighters brandished in the air at concerts around the world. It has been only eight years since the millionth lighter rolled off the production line in More recently, the launch of pressurized lighter inserts allowed for the customization of the portable flame, from a rechargeable arc, to refillable butane torch options.

Lucas Johnson, Zippo Brand Manager comments:. The production of our millionth lighter is not only a celebration in our production capabilities but a moment to pause and celebrate all our milestones. We are delighted to commemorate this moment with the latest design to celebrate the millionth lighter. Zippo fans will be able to buy their own limited-edition Millionth Collectible lighter starting on July 31st,