Tweezerman plans $11.3M expansion, creation of 14 jobs

Tweezerman International LLC is planning an $11.3 million expansion in Port Washington to accommodate increased sales of its tweezers, nail clippers, eyelash curlers and other personal grooming products, officials said last week.

The company will add 16,000 square feet to its office, factory and warehouse at 2 Tri Harbor Ct., which is now 61,300 square feet. The new space will be used for warehousing, according to John P. Gordon, the company’s real estate attorney.

He also said improvements will be made to 12,000 square feet of office space.

However, Gordon said Tweezerman, which is owned by a German company, cannot proceed with the project unless it receives tax breaks from Nassau County. He said Tweezerman has been negotiating a tax-aid package with the county’s Industrial Development Agency since late 2021.

“Many of Tweezerman’s competitors are located in other states and around the world — in much lower cost areas,” Gordon said at last week’s IDA board meeting. “The company is looking for financial assistance … in order to be on the same even footing as its competitors.”

Minutes later, the IDA board voted unanimously to grant final approval for a tax-incentive deal for Tweezerman. It consists of a sales-tax exemption of up to $619,330 on the purchase of construction materials, equipment and furnishings, plus an agreement that provides some certainty about property-tax costs by fixing the rate increase at 2% per year for 20 years. The company currently pays about $300,000 annually in property taxes, records show.

In return, Tweezerman executives promised to add 14 people to the company’s workforce of 119 over the next two years. That’s on top of the nine jobs created in the past 20 months.

Records show employees earned between $50,000 and $150,000 in 2021, including the value of health insurance and other benefits.

Without the tax breaks, Tweezerman’s German parent, Zwilling J.A. Henckels Co., would likely close the Port Washington operation and “pursue the most cost-effective options of relocation or outsourcing” work to vendors, wrote Michael Schley, chief financial officer and chief operating officer, in the application for IDA aid.

Keeping well-known businesses and their good-paying jobs, such as Tweezerman, is one of the IDA’s primary objectives, said agency chairman William H. Rockensies.

“This is the kind of project that we like because it retains jobs and it brings more jobs to Nassau County,” he said in an interview. “Our mission is to keep businesses in the county and to help them to grow here."  

Tweezerman was founded in 1980 by Dal LaMagna of Sea Cliff with a $500 investment. In a 1996 Newsday interview, LaMagna said he got the idea for the business when he couldn’t find a pair of tweezers capable of removing a splinter in his bottom from sunbathing on a California roof in the 1970s.

The company grew to have a factory in India and offices in Houston. In 2003, LaMagna successfully sought $4 million in taxable bonds and $357,750 in tax savings from the IDA to purchase and renovate the Tri Harbor Court building and to hire 15 workers, according to IDA records. He had threatened to move the company to Houston.

A year later, LaMagna, a Democrat who aspired to be a congressman, sold Tweezerman for more than $50 million to Henckels, a Germany-based maker of high-class cutlery. At the time, Tweezerman had 178 employees.

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.