Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Redmond spokesman. (Redmond, Crook County, Or.) 1910-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2022)
The Bulletin fi le photos At fi rst, salon closures during the pandemic worried Redmond-based McConnell Labs, maker of Light Elegance Nail Products, which are used by nail technicians. But in just a few weeks, “sales shot back up,” President Jim McConnell said. “… We fi gured that nail technicians went to work at home and had their clients show up there instead.” INSET: Jim and Lezlie McConnell, owners of Light Elegance Nail Products. Jim, a polymer chemist, and Lezlie, a former salon owner, started Light Elegance in 1999 and sell their products internationally. also dealt with supply chain problems and the fast-rising costs of raw materials. “We have had price increases from the same supplier not once, but twice, in the same month,” he said. McConnell estimated that many of the raw materials they use in nail products jumped 15- 25 percent in the past two years. At times, the company saw backlogs on supplies. Everything from boxes to packaging equipment to more specialized pigments, resins and acrylic acids were hard to come by at time. Some thickeners that the company uses are also common in hand sanitizers and foaming soaps. Th at means they were almost impossi- ble to secure during the height of COVID-19, which forced the company’s chemists to refor- mulate many of their products. And that requires more than just updating the recipe. A careful list of ingredients is re- quired by most countries they ship to, in ad- dition to the stringent labeling requirements required here in the USA. As the availability of raw materials changed rapidly, McConnell said the company had to make sure they could be fl exible in changing their list of materials, com- municating that to customers, and making sure to meet regulations. It was a diffi cult to balance, he said. “We just tried to stay mobile and fl uid — to keep on rolling with it,” said McConnell. “Whatever transpired, we tried to fl ex with it.” Th e company has 33 employees at their manufacturing facility on Umatilla Ave., with multiple open positions. Th eir 20,000-square- foot facility is almost entirely used to manufac- ture, label and knit products that are shipped to nail salons. Looking to the future, McConnell said that the company’s success will be predicated on their ability to hold their own against Chinese competitors, who oft en use cheaper but less safe materials. “Some of the stuff they use is illegal in cos- metics (in the EU and the US)” said McCon- nell, who noted that his company’s “Made in the USA” tag still carries weight in the industry. Dealing with the rising cost of labor, and the diffi culty of holding on to good staff , will be key to the company’s longterm prospects, he said. Redmond REDMOND PROFILES | APRIL 2022 | 11
