Even taking the film's agenda as fact, and accepting that Mangano's family members are a pack of venal, shameless, bile-spitting grotesques who speak only in broad clichs, Joy never thinks to . After selling the mop at trade shows and in local stores on Long Island, she sold 1,000 units on consignment to QVC. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. [17] The Forever Fragrant line has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Her first production run of 100 were madein her father's auto-body shop. Talking about the inventors love life, she was married to Anthony Miranne from 1978 to 1989. While working at an animal hospital as a teenager, Joy designed a reflective collar so that cars could see the animals at night. .css-lwn4i5{display:block;font-family:Neutra,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:-0.01rem;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;text-align:center;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-lwn4i5:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}'NCIS' Fans, Mark Harmon Made a Huge Career Move, See Iam Tongi's Journey on 'American Idol', Kelly Clarkson's See-Through Look Is Going Viral, Read 'Jeopardy! Every great detective has an intellectually equal opposite. In under a decade, the mops were raking in $10 million a year in sales. That is her gift. Mangano hatched Huggable Hangers, for example, in a couture showroom, zeroing in on how a thick, velvet-sheathed hanger kept a heavily beaded $10,000 gown perfectly in place. A product with a similar design was released the next year by Hartz Mountain. A Boca Raton company that created cleaning products for Miracle Mop inventor and infomercial star Joy Mangano is suing HSN, saying the television shopping network owes it millions of dollars.. Now that Mangano is this awards seasons Erin Brockovich, shes sagely striking while the ironor in her case, while the Little Steameris hot. Joy was the main breadwinner for her household . He was a great salesman, and that was one way to keep him connected with the kids. Christie is head of brand development, merchandising, and marketing; their son, Bobby, runs business development; Jackie Miranne, a model and style correspondent for HSN and Us Weekly. Performance Platforms These are shoes with rubber platform heels that give the user extra height. Batman has Ras al Ghul. Fergus Mason, who authored Joy: The Unofficial Biography of Miracle Mop Inventor Joy Mangano, knows this fact all too well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, executives at Fox 2000 felt Mumolo's script needed more character development. Joys mother, played by Virginia Madsen and living in a world of little more than house dresses and soap operas, is a composite of several women from Manganos life. Mangano, who was once the owner of Ingenious Designs, regularly appears on the nations shopping channel HSN. These handy spray pens kill household germs in 60 seconds on hard non-porous surfaces. Family Life She was married to Tony Miranne from 1978 to 1989 and she has three children, Christie, Robert and Jackie. Joy's father (Robert De Niro) sends his daughter Peggy (Joy's half-sister) to California to make nice with the manufacturer. However, it was during this rough period that she had her million dollar idea. After that, she continued working as a face of the network, also selling other products like her huggable hangers. HSN now sells the hangers without Manganos name attached. Joy Mangano just debuted the latest Miracle Mop on HSN. The former county executive was convicted of bribery and fraud, along with his wife on conspiracy charges. Now two women profiled in an 8 On Your Side investigation filed a lawsuit asserting they suffered severe burns from Mangano's My Little Steamer. Elijah Wood Finds Joy in the Violent Intrigue of. For one, Mangano's ex-husband, Tony Miranne (played by dgar Ramrez), the father of her three grown children, is not a Venezuelan singer but her former classmate at New York's Pace. He literally mined all parts of her lifehow she felt about everything, says Gabler. Lightning went from glory to gory in 380 seconds against Maple Leafs, Gov. Keri Russell Is the Ultimate Diplomat in Her New Netflix Show, Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan Bring a Rarely Seen Lorraine Hansberry Gem Back to New York, Zendaya and Law Roach Take Mumbai in Coordinating Indian Couture, Only Rihanna Could Pull Off a Fur Coat With a Trucker Hat, Attar, the Millennia-Old Fragrance Tradition, Is Poised for a Major Comeback. As in the film, Mangano convinced QVC that the channels regular mainstays didnt know how to sell the mop, but that she could sell it if given the chance to go on air. [6][7], In 2018, it was reported that a musical production depicting Manganos life story is being developed by Tony-winning producer Ken Davenport, who acquired the musical rights and plans to bring it to the stage.[12]. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Did Annie Mumolo's original script do that, too? This content is imported from youTube. Some of them speculate the former HSN queens silence could be because of a non-compete or nondisclosure contract. The opportunity to do business with HSN, particularly once QVC and HSN merged into Qurate Retail Group, was the classic case of dangling the carrot in front of a horse, said Christopher D. Cathey, an attorney representing NatuReal. She stopped thinking about patents long enough to fall in love with Tony Miranne, a fellow business student in college. Gabler says Mangano is excited about all the fictionalization; she attended the films premiere on December 13 and posed for photos with Lawrence. His name is Paul, he told me when I sat next to him at the greasy-spoon B.L.T. a movie about a mop might feel a little quixotic.. Funeral services for a 2-year-old boy whose Yemeni mother sued the Trump administration to allow her to visit the child before he died were held Saturday afternoon in Lodi. Following school, however, Mangano worked as a waitress and, as depicted in the movie, an airline reservations specialist, before her career as an entrepreneur took off. NatuReals attorneys say it was HSN and its parent company, Qurate Retail Group, that used their size and reach to take advantage of their client. HSNs lawyers pushed for the case to be handled in Pinellas County because the shopping networks offices are in St. Petersburg. Then, while working at an animal hospital as a teenager, she thought up a fluorescent flea collar for cats and dogs to make them easily visible to cars at night. Ad Choices. And thats about where the details end. Joy apparently never has a contract with that manufacturer, because he keeps billing her unfairly and raising his prices. -Investors.com, During his initial phone conversations with the real Joy Mangano, Director David O. Russell was up front and told her that the film was "not going to be a biopic." According to a 2001 New York Times article, the real Mangano, a divorced Long Island mother of three, went into significant debt developing her mop, but never stopped believing in it. A Boca Raton company that created cleaning products for Miracle Mop inventor and infomercial star Joy Mangano is suing HSN, saying the television shopping network owes it millions of dollars. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. "I had a vision of a beautiful family and all the things that come with raising children and being a mother," Mangano, 59, tells Good Housekeeping about her marriage to aspiring singer Tony. Mumolo spent at least a year working on her script, meeting with, and researching the life story of, Miracle Mop creator Joy Mangano. Yes. [5], Mangano released her autobiography, Inventing Joy, in 2017. But the blockbuster hit is Huggable Hangers, with 700 million sold to date. Joy's half-sister Peggy is entirely fictional and was created by writer/director David O. Russell. Despite the movie being set on Long Island, it was actually filmed in Boston, Massachusetts and other nearby Massachusetts towns (Wilmington, North Reading, Winchester, Haverhill). Spouse/Ex-: Anthony Miranne (m. 19781989), children: Christie Miranne, Jacqueline Miranne, Robert Miranne, (American Inventor and Entrepreneur Known for Inventions Such as the Self-Wringing Miracle Mop), https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/293109, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160105006086/en/Macy%E2%80%99s-Introduces-Award-Winning-Home-Helpers-Inventor-Entrepreneur. A spokeswoman for Qurate said it does not comment on pending litigation. Of the 36 books hes written for the biographys publisher, BookCapswhich specializes in pieces that highlight a lesser-known or sometimes forgotten lifehe says Manganos story is one of the most challenging jobs hes taken on. Popularity Most Popular #108560 First Name Joy (She will continue to appear and sell her line through HSN.) Mostly fiction: Mangano had a vengeful half-sister, a soap opera-addicted mother and a working relationship with a QVC executive named Neil Walker. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Real Woman Behind "Joy", 'NCIS' Fans, Mark Harmon Made a Huge Career Move, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Oh but wait, she demanded interest from the Texan -- that proves what a sharp businesswoman she is! Mangano would go on to be known as an inventor of practical household products, and she got started with her ideas at an early age: While working at an animal hospital as a teenager, Mangano devised a fluorescent flea collar for cats and dogs to make them easily visible to cars at night (Hartz put a similar product on the market a year later). (An example: we attended a cocktail party celebrating her 15th year with HSN, but everything about the seemingly benign event, in which we spoke with Mangano for a few moments, was deemed confidential.) Our position in the lawsuit is that HSN used its power as a retail heavyweight to take advantage of a small Florida-based company, Cathey said. It was around this time that she came up with the idea for the Miracle Mop. She once also made a guest appearance on ABCs The View and was a judge on the reality show Made in the USA. Letsgetstarted. She called it the Miracle Mop, and in 1990 Mangano created a prototype and had 100 of them made, the end of a development process that had cost almost $100,000 that she had saved and borrowed. Those screenwriters were able to take dramatic license without portraying real people as fantasy characters operating in fantasy worlds, yet still tell interesting, entertaining stories. Dramatic license would need to be taken. It hit the air without its creator and didnt do very well, so Mangano suggested that if she appeared on the broadcast the next time, the mop would move. Mangano founded Ingenious Designs, the HSN subsidiary that made the deal with NatuReal to create Joy Manganos Miracle Clean." And those articles that do detail her rise to fame are virtually identical, name-dropping all the same inventions, sales numbers, awards, and career milestones you see above. She went on to invent several other products, and in 1999 she sold her company, which has hundreds of millions in sales, to HSN. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. She is also the founder of Comfort & Joy Textiles that is popular for bedding stuff made from Supima cotton. The idea for the mop belongs to Joy and no one has the right to take it from her. Dramatic license would need to be taken. Some of the things she comes out with, you think shes . All rights reserved. Or might a subsequent draft have done so, had she gotten some good feedback from those Fox 2000 executives? Additional obstacles would have to be created. There are definitely elements that are absolutely biographical as it relates to Joy Mangano herself, says Elizabeth Gabler, president of Fox 2000, and one of the few people involved with the film willing to speak about how Manganos story was adapted. After the product launched on TV sold live by Mangano on HSN the lawsuit says Ingenious Design executives told NatuReal to be ready to increase production because of record sales that night. In 1992, she talked QVC into taking 1000 mops, but the network's on-air talent failed to move many units. In the almost two and a half decades since she went on QVC for the first time and sold almost 20,000 mops in under 20 minutes, Mangano has sold more than $3 billion in products. True to the movie, however, Miranne remains one of Manganos best friends, as well as an executive vice president at her company, Ingenious Designs. DeSantis vs. the will of the people | Letters, The $14.8 million next phase in USFs on-campus stadium push, Joy Mangano, inventor of the Miracle Mop, leaves HSN after 20 years, Lawsuit spells out tumultuous time during HSN and QVC merger, Federal judge approves T-Mobiles $26.5B takeover of Sprint. [2] [3] She was the president of Ingenious Designs, LLC, and appeared regularly on the U.S. television shopping channel HSN until her departure in late 2018. After high school, Mangano went to Pace University in New York, graduating in 1978 with a BA in business administration. The Joy true story reveals that she possesses more than 100 patents and trademarks for her inventions, which also include the velvet-covered Huggable Hangers (designed to prevent clothes from slipping onto the floor) and My Little Steamer (a handheld device for smoothing out wrinkles). Now, I can proudly say 26 of my products have been approved!". In California, Joy is arrested while trying to get her molds back. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. As of 2015, Manganos net worth is reportedly around $50 millionyet, for all her incredible success, theres precious little additional information to be found about her. Fact: After their divorce, Mangano and Miranne remained close, and he continued to work for her company. In May 2010, Mangano sold 30,000 pairs in three hours on HSN. [24] They have three children: Christie, Robert, and Jacqueline Miranne. But the romance didn't last. [16], Shades Readers a line of reading glasses sold in sets of three or more so that they can be kept around the home and office for easy access. The line initially started with sneakers, and has since extended to mules, Mary Janes, and sandals. It was extremely hard to find information, particularly about Joys early life, says Mason. Among them, the 25th anniversary edition of the Miracle Mop, whicheureka!no longer requires a twist of the wrist. Mangano has quite literally cleaned up, ascending to the top of a $1 billion empire on HSN ($3 billion in her career to date) with genius housewife hacks, like the space-saving Huggable Hangers (700 million and counting sold) and the travel-size My Little Steamer. By December of 2018, Mangano left HSN. Joy Mangano was born on February 1, 1956. All About Justin Hakuta, Ruston Kelly Says New Album 'The Weakness' Is Him 'Sifting Through' a Series of Major Life Upheavals (Exclusive), Judy Blume on Her Joyful Life at 85: 'Keep Dancing! Jennifer Lawrence's role as Joy Mangano in the movie Joy has won the actress her third Golden Globe award. In researching the Joy true story, we learned that Mangano was 34 when she developed the prototype for the Miracle Mop in 1990, the same year actress Jennifer Lawrence was born. They married and quickly had a family. Jennifer Magnano's Children Fight for 'Jennifer's Law' in Her Honor . She never patented the idea, however, and the manufacturer Hartz Mountain brought a similar product to market before Mangano did. But if Mac motherboards in Jobs and subprime mortgages in The Big Short can be glamorous, why not a mop? As the lawsuit proceeds in Pinellas court, fans are wondering what happened to Mangano and her products since the HSN split. Yes, but like in the movie, Joy appearing on the network to pitch it herself is what saved the day. MORE Jennifer Lawrence Talks Joy Inspiration and How Katniss Would Spearhead Her Squad, Fact: Mangano got her start as an inventor by developing a fluorescent pet collar. In other words, Russell's Joy finally does what anyone with a smidgen of sense would have done at the very beginning. "From the start, I was focused on getting the Good Housekeeping Seal," says Mangano. Her company, Ingenious Designs, has also produced a range of organizational products for jewelry, travel, baked goods and more many now sold on HSN. The 2015 film Joy was loosely based on her life. 2023 Cond Nast. He's still upset that Hugh Laurie never won an Emmy for House. -Biography.com. First he gives her a crazy family. . Like Downton Abbey, Manganos house has a name: Swan Manor. A year later, the company Hartz Mountain put a similar product on the market. I had the David O. Russell therapythe best kind., The result is a film that blends fact and fiction. After selling a few thousand mops in her first year, she took the product to QVC. For one, Manganos ex-husband, Tony Miranne (played by dgar Ramrez), the father of her three grown children, is not a Venezuelan singer but her former classmate at New Yorks Pace University. First, it was the Miracle Mop, she explains. Russell's Joy takes actions no halfway intelligent person would take, let alone a brilliant inventor and businesswoman. Unfortunately, we'll never know, because they chose to simply trash her screenplay so they could turn the story of Joy Mangano over to David O. Russell. Subscribe to our free Business by the Bay newsletter. All Rights Reserved. It needed to be much more of an emotional and all-encompassing story., At that point, the team switched gears and started looking for a directorand once David O. Russell signed on, he opted to start the screenplay from scratch. She . In January, shes launching a massive retail expansion, rolling out a rebranded suite of products to Macys (a new partner); Target; Bed, Bath & Beyond; and The Container Store. I could start crying right now. We are seated with her eldest daughter, Christie Miranne, in the great room at Swan (what intimates call it for short), the equivalent of at least four regular living rooms, swathed floor to ceiling in soothing, buttery tones. Heres where the movie adheres to Manganos story and where it diverges. But she also hired her ex husband as a sales executive very early on, mostly to keep him involved with their children. Her invention, Huggable Hangers, became the best-selling product in HSN history. And because much of Manganos personal life has been kept private, it is difficult to say for certain which parts of these characters are based in reality. Mangano doesnt just invent wonderful creations, as theyre dubbed in Joy; she personally sells them live on HSN, a rarity for most executives. Comfort & Joy Textiles This is a range of bedding that is made from Supima cotton. For more about Joy, check out Good Housekeeping's February issue, on stands January 19 and get a sneak peek HERE. As of today, she has more than 100 patents, including one for HSNs best-selling product of all time, Huggable Hangers. That would be an amazing thing.". By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. The Tony winner and comedy legend reflects on a wild, 40-year-plus acting careerall leading to this moment. In reality, the two remained not only friends and co-parents, but also colleagues. Mom Jumps For Joy As She Sends Her Kids Back to School. After college, she went on to hold a variety of jobs while getting married and having three children. Mostly Fact: The Miracle Mop did not sell on QVC until Mangano went on air to sell it herself, though her first appearance was a flop. And despite being highlighted as the life-changing invention and driving force of Joys arc, the Miracle Mop is named only once (in a blink-and-youll-miss-it TV screen graphic amid the products first disastrous QVC showing). In choosing to tell a private life story in this most unique fashion, Mangano and O. Russell have made a film unlike any other biopicin that it may not be a biopic at all, and only Mangano and her family know the truth. Though it's never been tested, Joy agrees to take a second mortgage on her house and borrow $100,000 to fulfill the order. I've stood up in front of America for 25 years and I wish I could bring everybody into my home that I have touched in my career. The project was offered to David O. Russell, the Academy Award nominated director and writer of films like American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. All Rights Reserved. Chancellor is a staff writer covering TV and occasionally comics. [19][20] Mangano has also appeared in shorter commercials and infomercials for her company's products. A mom and a woman way back then, to sit at a coffee table and say, Yeah, Im an inventor? She sold Ingenious Designs to USA Networks, the parent company of the HSN, in 1999. ", The mogul mom even helped get one of New York's bike helmet laws passed. As single-mom female inventor, there was no path for that, so really I dont think people took me seriously for a really long time, the Huggable Hangers creator told PEOPLE. She will celebrate her 66th birthday at the beginning of 2022, though she's taken excellent care of herself over the years. In 2005, Mangano was a judge on the cable reality show Made in the USA. Cafe, and he has kids my age. Court documents show that NatuReals attorneys wanted HSN and Ingenious Designs to provide documents about Manganos break from HSN. Mangano released her autobiography titled Inventing Joy in 2017. -Biography.com. Joy Mangano, 59, was struggling to make ends meet when she divorced She invented a self-wringing mop and persuaded QVC to let her sell it It became a hit and launched her career as a QVC. But Mangano isnt named as a defendant or as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. [3] In 2009, she was ranked number 77 on Fast Company's list of The 100 Most Creative People in Business; and in 2010, she was included in their list of The 10 Most Creative Women in Business. . She eventually started her own company, Ingenious Designs, which she later sold off to USA Networks. Shes also one of our great actorsand is at last getting her showcase. In the pitchwoman's all-in-the-family business philosophy, Hoke began dating Christie Miranne, Mangano's oldest daughter. The Florida company, NatuReal, says in its lawsuit that it began creating the cleaning products in 2015. . The 2015 film "Joy" was loosely based on her life. But their interpretation is completely Davids original.. -VanityFair.com, Yes. But shortly after they debuted on the shopping network in 2018, Mangano left HSN. She believes that turquoise pots create tastier meals, iced coffee and power tools make her unstoppable, and one can never have too many books. (My wife had an intimate relationship with her, he gripes. Joy Mangano is an American inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and Forever Fragrant. I dont ever have to go through therapy, she laughs. They got it. . Unlike in the movie, in which Lawrences character gives up a promising academic career, the real Mangano graduated from Pace University with a degree in business administration in 1978. The basics are out there: she was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1956. Many of the characters in Joy are either completely fictional or amalgams of several people in Manganos or Russells lives. Actress Jennifer Lawrence, who portrays Mangano in the movie, told The Late Show host Stephen Colbert that she didn't want the "burden" of having to portray a real person. "I was also president of the PTA," she says. There are definitely events that took place in her [Joys] life that anyone that would research her life would find. Best Known For: Joy Mangano is an American inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and Forever Fragrant. The soft, slim hangers were inspired by the velvety hangers she saw in a couture store. Just a few examples of O. Russells reality-blurring technique: in the film, Joy has just twonot threechildren: Christie (the real name of Manganos eldest daughter) and Tommy (Manganos son goes by Bobby). Mangano used her frustration with mopping to develop the product that would change her life and millions of Americans'. Gracing the cover of Good Housekeepings February issue, the multimillionaire entrepreneur opens up about the reasons for her divorce and how it led her to create her landmark invention, the Miracle Mop. -Vogue, Yes. Instead she agrees to pay a "protection" royalty to the patent holder's representative. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. [16], Clothes It All Luggage System wheeled luggage with organizational features like a padded laptop compartment, a toiletry organizer, a pocket for plane tickets, and removable dividers. Fact: Mangano later sold her company, Ingenious Designs, to the Home Shopping Network, where she remains to this day. Instead, he explained to her that it was going to be "half-fiction." Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Joy Mangano Infomercial & "Joy" Movie Trailers, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Joy's Daughter Jackie Miranne's Website JackieatHome.com. This self-wringing plastic mop can be easily squeezed out without making the users hands wet. A Boca Raton company that created cleaning products for Miracle Mop inventor and infomercial star Joy Mangano is suing HSN, saying the television shopping network owes it millions of dollars. Director Lorene Scafaria, who helmed Sundays episode, Honeymoon States, takes, Will Kim Kardashians Acting Be the Scariest Part of. Joy Mangano ( / mno / mang-GAN-oh; born February 1, 1956) [1] is an American inventor and entrepreneur known for inventions such as the self-wringing Miracle Mop. [16], Performance Platforms shoes with a rubber platform heel that gives the wearer extra height. While Mangano founded Ingenious Designs, she sold it to HSN in 1999. -VanityFair.com, Yes. But whats truth and whats fiction? In 2014, it was reported that Manganos rags to riches life story would be coming to the big screen in a David O. Russell biopic, Joy, starring .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Jennifer Lawrence as Mangano. She was the face of the product, inspiring the movie Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence. [22], Mangano currently sits on the Advistory Board for the United Inventors Association (UIA). By 1990, a year after the divorce, the Brooklyn-born inventor had developed a prototype for her self-wringing mop, but she still faced an uphill battle. Her Facebook page still posts small personal updates, inspirational quotes, products, and book promotions, but doesnt link to where users can buy Joy brand items. "We're the best of friends," says Joy. It was released on Christmas Day 2015. Some posters complain theyre struggling to find the mop that made Mangano famous for sale now that its not on HSNs website. "[11] In 2019 after nearly two decades, she left HSN to pursue other professional opportunities. Fiction: Mangano forewent higher education to help her family though her parents divorce. (They're HSN's number one seller and also have our GH Seal.) Mangano keeps her large Italian-American family involved in the business her three kids all work for her, too: Christie, 33, is senior VP of brand development, merchandising and. Here are some of the absurd things Russell's Joy does, as well as the complete legal and business gobbledygook Russell employs: Joy tells him she called the actual patent holder in Hong Kong, discovering he'd never received any of her royalty payments from the Texan. It was marketed as being made from plants and without all the warnings and scary labels" seen with traditional surface cleaners. While it was really funny and had some wonderful scenes in it, says Gabler, I felt like it needed to be much more about Joys journey, not just about the creation of the mop and all the details that were involved with the mop. Mangano has been the face of the network ever since, and in her 15th year, she remains one of HSNs most successful sellers, with annual sales topping $150 million.