Reginald Lewis

Entrepreneur

Reginald Lewis was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States on December 7th, 1942 and is the Entrepreneur. At the age of 50, Reginald Lewis biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

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Date of Birth
December 7, 1942
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Death Date
Jan 19, 1993 (age 50)
Zodiac Sign
Sagittarius
Profession
Businessperson, Financier, Lawyer
Reginald Lewis Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 50 years old, Reginald Lewis physical status not available right now. We will update Reginald Lewis's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Height
Not Available
Weight
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Hair Color
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Eye Color
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Build
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Measurements
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Reginald Lewis Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Virginia State University, Harvard Law School
Reginald Lewis Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Not Available
Children
Leslie Lewis, Christina Lewis
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Siblings
Loida Nicolas-Lewis (wife)
Reginald Lewis Career

Recruited to top New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP immediately after law school, Lewis left to start his own firm two years later. After 15 years as a corporate lawyer with his own practice, he moved to the other side of the table by creating TLC Group L.P., a private equity firm, in 1983.

His first major deal was the purchase of the McCall Pattern Company, a home sewing pattern business, for $22.5 million. Lewis had learned from a Fortune magazine article that the Esmark holding company, which had recently purchased Norton Simon, planned to divest from the McCall Pattern Company, a maker of home sewing patterns founded in 1870. With fewer and fewer people sewing at home, McCall was seemingly on the decline—though it had posted profits of $6 million in 1983 on sales of $51.9 million. At the time, McCall was number two in its industry, holding 29.7 percent of the market, compared to industry leader Simplicity Patterns with 39.4 percent.

He managed to negotiate the price down, then raised $1 million himself from family and friends and borrowed the rest from institutional investors and investment banking firm First Boston Corp.

Within a year, he turned the company around by freeing up capital tied in fixed assets such as building and machinery, and finding a new use for machinery during downtime by manufacturing greeting cards. He then started to recruit managers from rival companies. He further strengthened McCall by containing costs, improving quality, beginning to export to China, and emphasizing new product introductions. This new combination led to the company's most profitable year in its history. With the addition of McCall real estate worth an estimated $6 million that the company retained ownership of, he later sold McCall at a 90-1 return, resulting in a tremendous profit for investors. Lewis's share was 81.7 percent of the $90 million.

In 1987, Lewis bought Beatrice International Foods from Beatrice Companies for $985 million, renaming it TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., a snack food, beverage, and grocery store conglomerate that was the largest African-American owned and managed business in the U.S. The deal was partly financed through Mike Milken of the maverick investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. In order to reduce the amount needed to finance the leveraged buyout, Lewis came up with a plan to sell off some of the division's assets simultaneous with the takeover.

When TLC Beatrice reported revenue of $1.8 billion in 1987, it became the first black-owned company to have more than $1 billion in annual sales. At its peak in 1996, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. had sales of $2.2 billion and was number 512 on Fortune magazine's list of 1,000 largest companies.

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