Cottrell, Comer 1931—

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Comer Cottrell 1931—

Entrepreneur

Started Company on Shoestring

Overseas Expansion Triggered Growth

Broke New Ground in Baseball

Saved Bankrupt College

Continued Support of Education

Sources

Starting a cosmetics company alone and with almost no funds in 1970, Comer Cottrell built up his firm into a major player in the industry by focusing exclusively on the beauty needs of black customers. Eventually his lineup included such popular lines as Curly Kit, Kiddie Kit, andPerm Repair, to name a few. By 1988 his Dallas-based Pro-Line Corporation was the largest black-owned firm in the Southwest and one of the most profitable black companies in the United States.

Cottrell’s interest in business was spawned at an early age while he was growing up in Mobile, Alabama. By the age of eight he often accompanied his father, an insurance salesman, on visits to clients. “It gave me a lot of pride to see him walk into those people’s homes, sit down in the living room and talk to them about when they die and how he would give them money to bury them,” he told The Black Collegian. “At that age I didn’t think people ever died. He gives them a receipt, a little piece of paper, and he comes back every week and gets money from them until they die. My God, I thought, this is business? I love it!”

After graduating from the University of Detroit in 1952, Cottrell had various sales jobs. His highest position before starting his cosmetics concern was as a sales manager for Sears Roebuck, a position he held for five years. A contributing factor to his future choice of business was his management of a military base’s post exchange. “I managed an Air Force base exchange and noticed that there were no hair products for blacks,” he said in Nation’s Business. “Twenty percent of the people on the base were black. I talked to the authorities, and they told me there was no need for such products.”

Started Company on Shoestring

Years later Cottrell approached some chemical companies to see if they could create products for the “Afro” hairstyle that was popular at the time. With only $600, a borrowed typewriter, and a rundown 700-square-foot warehouse, Cottrell began Pro-Line Corporation in Los Angeles. He had to agree to make improvements in the warehouse to get a six-month reprieve from paying rent. Lacking the funds for advance payment to a manufacturer, he convinced a small firm to take a

At a Glance…

Born December 7, 1931, in Mobile, AL; married fsabeil Paulding; children: Renee, Comer Ml, Aaron, Education: University of Detroit, 1952,

Was sales manager at Sears Roebuck, 1964-1969; founded Pro-Line Corporation in Los Angeles, CA, 1970; moved company to Dallas, 1980; became sponsor of Miss Collegiate African-American Pageant, 1989; became part owner of Texas Rangers, 1989; bought property of bankrupt Bishop College in Dallas, TX, 1990; persuaded Paul Quinn College to relocate to former grounds of Bishop College, 1990; donated $25,000 to Spelman College in Atlanta, CA, 1994; served as part of an entourage of black businessmen visiting the Republic of South Africa, 1994. Military service: served in U,S. Air Force.

Memberships: Board of Directors of Republic Bank, Southwest Dallas Hospital Corporation, Western PacificIndustries, Dallas Financial Corporation, Pro-Ball Inc.

Addresses: Business–Pro-Line Corporation, 2121 Panoramic Circle, Dallas, TX 75212.

chance on him. He entered the cosmetics market with a strawberry-fragranced, oil-based hair spray, which he promoted to black beauticians and barbers. The product proved popular and enabled him to pay off his manufacturer in less than a month.

Profitability did not immediately come to Pro-Line, and Cottrell was forced to work hard to cut into markets around the country. As he told The Black Collegian,” I came to New Orleans driving the truck, loaded down with boxes of grease. I was raggedy and broke and had to sell a case of hair spray to be able to eat and buy gas. After several months, Cottrell added a few more products to his inventory and was on his way to building his company into a major business.

Within five years Pro-line had its own distribution center in Birmingham, Alabama. Despite such gains, Cottrell was having difficulty getting his products into stores because Johnson Products Company, the top black cosmetics company, dominated the market. In an attempt to get marketing ideas from his competitor, he contacted Johnson. As a result of this meeting, Cottrell met Isabell Paulding, a former Miss Black Alabama who was one of Johnson’s managers. Cottrell married Paulding and brought her into his own company.

By 1980 Cottrell’s company had grown too large for the available facilities in Los Angeles, so he moved Pro-Line to Dallas. Just as he was ceasing production in California, he introduced his Curly Kit Home Permanent. When the product caused sales to soar by $11 million in the next ten months, it turned out to be a mixed blessing: production lines were closed due to the upcoming move. “Here we were moving our equipment from California to Texas, and we couldn’t keep up with the orders,” Cottrell noted in Nation‘s Business. “Competitors jumped in with similar products.”

Overseas Expansion Triggered Growth

Critical to Pro-Line’s growth was Cottrell’s tapping of overseas markets. Remembering his experience as a PX manager, he helped to bring African American cosmetics to military bases both in the United States and abroad. Eventually his products were reaping big domestic sales as well as succeeding in the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the Asia. In addition he had set up licensing and royalty arrangements with firms in Nigeria, Kenya, Trinidad, and Taiwan. In the years that followed, he developed more sophisticated marketing that targeted specific segments such as salons, individuals, and children. Working hard to increase his share of the market, Cottrell turned Pro-Line into the fourth-largest ethnic beauty enterprise in the United States. In 1987, his company was ranked 39th on Black Enterprise’s list of the top 100 black businesses. By 1989, Cottrell’s corporation had risen to number 19 on the list with yearly sales of $36 million worldwide.

Cottrell sees his success in business as an avenue open to all blacks, if they are willing to pay their dues. “I firmly believe that if young persons, beginning even during childhood, spent as much time as possible learning to verbalize their thoughts, reading business publications, practicing the business techniques of successful people, and learning the vocabulary of the business world they could, by the time they are adults, be ‘pros’ equipped with all the necessary tools for success,” he wrote in an article in Ebony in 1980. By following his own advice, Cottrell has continued to increase his business knowledge and thereby expand his areas of expertise.

Broke New Ground in Baseball

In 1989 Cottrell became a part owner of the Texas Rangers, becoming the first black to hold such a stake in a Major League Baseball team. Cottrell was part of a 14-member purchasing group led by George Bush, Jr., son of the former U.S. president George, Sr. Cottrell’s share of the estimated $25 million purchase was around $1 million. He felt that he could use his new position to induce affirmative action in the realm of professional sports and was highly vocal about the lack of minority involvement in the Rangers organization. At the time he also claimed that he would make efforts to get the local black community more involved in the team.

Demonstrating his concern for youths, Cottrell kicked off the “Say No to Drugs and Yes to Education” Back to School Promotion in 1990. The program encouraged all Pro-Line customers to pledge 25 cents each, which would be donated in their behalf to support anti-drug efforts and grant scholarships. Cottrell has considered such programs to be an essential responsibility of all black business professionals. In Ebony he explained: “As we support black businesses those businesses have a responsibility to support the black community by reinvesting in that community for the improvement of its physical environment and for the inspiring of its youth.”

Saved Bankrupt College

Cottrell became a hero to higher education for blacks in 1990, when he came to the rescue of Bishop College, which had become bankrupt after years of scandal and financial problems. Founded by freed slaves and Baptist missionaries, the Dallas-based institution was thought to be the first educational campus to be auctioned off due to bankruptcy. Cottrell held an honorary degree from Bishop, was a trustee of the college, and had previously tried in vain to prevent the school’s collapse. In 1981, when an audit revealed that the institution was in debt to the federal government for $3.5 million, Cottrell was appointed acting chairman of the school. During his five-year stint in this position, he arranged for significant layoffs and aggressive fund-raising, but the school went bankrupt in addition to losing its accreditation in 1986.

Bidding took only ten minutes, with Cottrell being awarded the property for $1.5 million. He was in tears at the result, expecting to have to pay around $5 million for the school. “I waited until the last minute for someone or some group to come through and buy it,” he said in Jet in 1990. “But no one floated to the surface. It would have been a real blow to the developing black community here if the school was dissolved.”

As the new owner, Cottrell was faced with having to raise an estimated $40 million to restore the destitute campus. He planned to turn it back into a predominantly black college, and open it as soon as a board of trustees was established and construction crews had cleaned up the campus. “It won’t be precisely what it was before,” he told the New York Times. “It will be a college that is operated as a business.”

Cottrell considered it his moral duty to do what he could to save Bishop College, in order to help blacks better themselves. “As long as it serves the black community, that’s all that matters,” he said in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Cottrell told The Black Collegian,” It was not just a purchase but an investment. I think that a company that calls itself black, and asks for black support, is really asking the black community to grant it license to call itself that. And it has an obligation to give back. “Cottrell’s plan was to establish schools of nursing and life sciences and one in education that would train teachers to work in urban areas and provide them with inner-city teaching skills.

Eventually Cottrell persuaded Paul Quinn College, an African Methodist Episcopal church-supported institution, to relocate its operations from Waco to the former grounds of Bishop College in 1990. He contributed another $1.7 million to pay for renovations. “I’ve always been an advocate of higher education,” he said in an October 1991 issue of Jet. “Also, to get the local business community to invest in higher education is a perfect tie-in. The economic impact for this community will be felt for years.”

Continued Support of Education

In the late 1980s, Cottrell made Pro-Line a sponsor of the newly founded Miss Collegiate African American Pageant. He later offered a $25,000 gift to Spelman College after DaShawnda Gooden, a student there, won the pageant in 1992. “Pro-Line will continue its support and dedication to historically black colleges and universities through the Miss Collegiate African American Pageant,” Cottrell said while presenting a check to Spelman College President Johnnetta Cole, according to Jet.

Cottrell took his business savvy abroad in 1994 as part of an entourage of black businessmen sent to the Republic of South Africa. Organized by Langston University and its National Institute for the Study of Minority Enterprise (NISME), the group explored options for helping with research and training of black South African entrepreneurs. It also sought to make professional connections with the country’s established black entrepreneurs.

Pro-Line has continued its great success into the 1990s, and has become a family affair for Cottrell. His wife has served as an executive, his brother James has been a vice president, and his daughter, Renee Brown, has worked for the firm as a vice president of marketing and advertising. Throughout his business career, Cottrell has stressed the importance of good relations with others as the cornerstone of a successful business. “When you get in business you have to treat people as you would have them treat you,” he remarked in The Black Collegian. As for his success in the cosmetics industry, he told Nation’s Business that he made his mark by “selling hope–that’s all the beauty business is.”