Avon

About the house

David H. McConnell began as a door-to-door book salesman and founded the business in New York in 1886. Within the same year he decided to sell perfumes rather than books, working from a small office at 126 Chambers Street in Manhattan. The company's first name was the California Perfume Company, and its corporate office moved to 31 Park Place in 1909.

The Avon name came later. In 1939 the California Perfume Company changed its name to Avon Products, Inc. One account ties the name to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, and says it was in use before the official change, so sources differ on when it first appeared. ScentVerdict lists a Little Dot set with White Rose, Heliotrope, Violet, Hyacinth and Lily of the Valley, and collectible novelty decanters from the 1960s.

A British Beauty Council chief has said Avon was selling peer to peer before the internet, and that its consultants were the first influencers. By 2010 Brazil had overtaken the United States as the company's largest market, and in 2020 Avon reported worldwide sales of $9.1 billion.

Avon Products was removed from the S&P 500 in March 2015. In 2016 Cerberus Capital Management took an almost 17 percent stake, and a restructuring plan that year included moving the global headquarters to London. Natura & Co closed its acquisition of Avon Products in January 2020, and later sold Avon Russia to the Arnest Group for $26.9 million.

On August 12, 2024, Avon Products filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware to shed more than $1bn of debt, with Natura & Co as its largest creditor. Avon's US operations continued under LG Household & Health Care Ltd.