SEPTEMBER 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 29
ROB KAYE:
CEO’S CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
By WARREN STRUGATCH
Rob Kaye, 55, is chief executive
officer of Lifetime Brands, Inc.,
the Garden City-based housewares
company that owns such brands as
Farberware, Cuisinart, Hoffritz,
KitchenAid, and Guy Fieri. A buyout
specialist and strategist, Kaye
joined Lifetime Brands as CEO in
March, stemming from the acquisition
of Filament Brands, the privately
held producer of such items
as thermometers, blood pressure
monitors and air purifiers. Kaye
joined Filament in 2012 and led the
buyout of Taylor Precision Products,
which became the cornerstone
of Filament. He began his career as
a consultant with Deloitte & Touche.
Kaye and his family live in Greenwich,
Conn. The conversation has
been edited and condensed.
For most of us, our parents were
our first influencers. How did
yours influence you? I was strongly
influenced by both my parents.
My father Joseph was a businessman
by career but an academic by
nature. Growing up in Riverdale in
the Bronx, we were raised on books.
On every family occasion we’d all
go out to a bookstore. My mother,
who’s still with us, was the steady
force in the family, making sure we
were acting responsibly. Her wisdom
was understanding the value
of people.
How did they shape your business
philosophy? From my father, I
got the foundation of looking at the
facts behind every situation. From
my mother, I learned it’s all about
people.
Your background is on the financial
side, doing deals. How’d
you get to be CEO of Lifetime
Brands? In 2012 I put together an
investor group and we acquired
Taylor Precision Products. It’s the
leader in consumer products that
use measurement like kitchen
thermometers, bath scales and
the like. We bought Taylor and I
transformed it from a measurement
company into a broader
housewares company. Fast forward
to 2017, the business was
Rob Kaye CEO of Lifetime Brands, Inc., shows off his company’s wares at the company’s Garden City
headquarters. (Photo by Matthew Kropp)
worth roughly $200 million. In
housewares, that’s a decent-sized
company.
And then? It dawned on me that
with all the changes in retail, size
matters. So does critical mass. I
started thinking how we could
grow much bigger. Lifetime seemed
a perfect opportunity to merge two
companies.
How did you get in the door? I
knew Jeff (Siegel, Lifetime’s chairman).
His father and a couple of
partners founded the company.
Jeff has had a lot to do with growing
the company into what it is today,
including taking it public.
Have you run a public company
before? I’ve been involved
with public companies in the past.
In the public world you spend a
lot more time dealing with your
shareholders and being the public
face of the company. Being private,
you only need to speak with your
shareholders and your board. (In
my case) they were one and the
same.
Is being public a genuine advantage?
Our average competitor
is a $25 million private company.
So this gives us scale and access
to capital. So yes, it’s a meaningful
competitive advantage.
Lifetime Brands has always
been run by people in the Siegel
family. What’s it like running the
company and not being a Siegel?
I am the first nonfamily member
to be CEO. You’re right, there is a
cultural shift. We are taking two
companies and merging them.
The cultural issues involved in
mergers are not unknown to me.
I have been buying companies and
merging them, working within
the cultures to make sure they are
uniform for some time.
Do you have a vision for the future?
Lifetime is a great company.
We’re creating Lifetime 2.0 and
taking it to a new level as a dynamic
public company. Both Jeff and
I share a fundamental business
philosophy that you evolve or you
dissipate. We are both very interested
in evolving and taking the
company to the next level.
C-SUITE
LIFETIME BRANDS
Leading global provider of
kitchenware, tableware and other
housewares
Chairman: Jeffrey Siegel
HQ: Garden City
Year founded: 1945
Number of employees: 1,400
(approximate)
Market cap: $250 million
(approximate)
Revenues 2017: $579.5 million
Earnings 2017: $2.15M