Members of the Sewell family are banding together to breathe new life into the old company started by the family's patriarch 60 years ago called Painexx.
Frank Sewell created Ringmaster Rubbing Oil, a topical pain reliever made of peanut oil, and sold it for decades. He also helped create the
Booker T. Washington Business Association in Detroit. The product and his company lapsed in the later years of his life until he died in 2006. Then a half dozen or so family members decided to take a shot at the company and have turned it into a family business.
"I had always been a corporate girl," says Nicole Weldon, vice president of business development for
Painexx. "I never thought I would be in the family business."
Ringmaster Rubbing Oil is now sold in a number of independent stores across Metro Detroit and in CVS and Walgreen pharmacies. The family is in talks with some other major retailers as it works to expand the retail footprint of the product across the nation. Ringmaster Rubbing Oil is a pain reliever for aches and pains.
"People see this as a complimentary product to their medication," says Douglas B Sewell, president and CEO of Painexx.
Source: Douglas B Sewell and Nicole Weldon, co-founders of Painexx
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com.
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