Lee Ratner

Leonard Lee Ratner was an American businessman who built his fortune through mail order sales, particularly as the founder of d-CON rat poison company, before moving into real estate investment.

He was the biological grandfather of film producer and director Brett Ratner.

Leonard Lee Ratner was born in 1918 and grew up on the west side of Chicago.

As a young child, he learned to be a salesman selling groceries and other merchandise at his father's produce stand.

At age 17, he took an active role in the business.

One day Ratner heard about a truck load of bananas that were about to spoil from over ripening.

He struck a deal with the truck owner to buy them for $250.

By the end of the day, he had resold the bananas to other grocers and fruit stands for a total of $1,750.

Ratner graduated from Marshall High School in 1937 before enrolling at Northwestern University.

There, he studied accounting in the School of Commerce before dropping out to pursue his business interests.

While still in college in 1940, Ratner formed his first company, a mail-order business called United Enterprises Inc. The business, which Ratner ran from his home, sold books, medicine, and novelty merchandise.

One of his first big successes came from a pocket-sized adding machine which "no decent-sized agency would touch".

Another product, stainless steel flatware, taught him what would become his signature marketing method – mail order products backed by aggressive radio advertising.

Once he showed demand for the product this way, he would then obtain retail distribution (which was generally more cost effective.) The business grew rapidly and by 1942, Ratner was a millionaire.

After serving in World War II, Ratner returned to Chicago and continued to look for new ventures.

In 1950, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation patented warfarin, a new chemical compound which had been in development since the 1930.

In the Summer of 1950, Ratner learned of the product and decided to investigate further.

He made a trip to Madison and after 30 minutes of discussion was convinced warfarin would be a big seller and signed a licensing agreement.

Ratner formed the d-CON Company as an 80% owner and contracted with the S.B. Penick Company, which was already distributing the compound, for an initial supply.

On September 5, 1950, a trial run of radio advertisements for d-CON commenced.

Targeting farmers, the ads aired between 5:30 am and 7:30 am on farm or news programs on stations that reached a large rural audience.

The 15 minute infomercials instantly created high demand for the product and advertising spending was quickly increased.

Within a short period of time, warfarin/d-CON "revolutionized the art of rodent control" by replacing manual extermination and highly toxic poisons.

To increase momentum for the new product, Ratner organized a 15-day experiment in Middleton, Wisconsin, a town with a particularly bad rat problem.

On November 4, d-CON was distributed throughout the community free of charge.

By November 19, the town's rat problem was over with no "signs of rats in the entire area".

By December, d-CON was spending $30,000 a week on coast-to-coast ads across 425 radio stations.

According to company claims, d-CON was selling more rodent killer in a week than their nearest competitor sold in a year.

Explaining d-CON's success over its competitors, Ratner remarked "exterminators has a terrific market but no one had ever advertised the product properly."

Ratner continued the aggressive advertising campaign, turning to the relatively new medium of television.

McKesson & Robbins was contracted for retail distribution.

By 1951, around 75 companies were distributing warfarin, but none had the impact of d-CON.

On May 1, 1951, Ratner ceased mail-order distribution of d-CON, having placed the product in more than 40,000 drug, grocery, and hardware stores.

Over the first eight months of its existence, d-CON had spent approximately $1 million on advertising, generating sales of $100,000 a week.

The success of d-CON led Ratner to expand the business, announcing plans to introduce 10 to 12 household products as subsidiaries of d-CON over the next several years.

The first was an insecticide called Fli-Pel.

Around 1955, Ratner formed The Grant Company as a subsidiary of the d-CON Company and as a joint venture with his brother Walter.

An offshoot, Glenn Chemical Company Inc., was also formed.

Products sold by these companies included cleaning supplies under the M-O-Lene brand name, Sonfa cosmetics, various household tools sold by the Grant Tool Company, and the Auto Grant "rocket ignition device".

Leeds & York was formed to handle the advertising of Ratner's products.