Pulse January / February 2016 | Page 58

SUCCESS STORIES Inspiring Tales of Startups, Growth and Overcoming Hardships BREAKING NEW GROUND ERIC GHEDIN CEO • Silhouet-Tone Ltd. • Doral, Florida hen Silhouet-Tone Ltd. was founded by Alphonse Ghedin in 1965, the company broke new ground. “At that time, there were no spa equipment manufacturers in North America. My mother owned a beauty school and needed equipment. Rather than importing from Europe, my father volunteered to design and manufacture the equipment and furniture. Silhouet-Tone was born from those initial efforts,” says Silhouet-Tone Ltd. CEO Eric Ghedin. W Early Challenges Being the first in the spa industry proved to be a double-edge sword. On the one hand, it allowed the company to set the standards and lead the way as a trailblazer in spa equipment manufacturing in the North American market. On the other end, it proved to be challenging to invent the wheel as there were n ¸