Hartford Business Journal

20 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 26, 2023 CEO John Kulesza stands outside Young Pharmaceuticals' new Wethersfield headquarters on Progress Drive. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Growing cosmetics company Young Pharmaceuticals readies new Wethersfield HQ, with eye toward additional expansion By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A fter graduating from Yale University in 1977, John Kulesza launched Young Pharmaceuticals with a $17,000 loan from his father and a 3,000-square- foot office in North Branford. Kulesza began hauling a suitcase full of acne lotion samples — his first product — from dermatologist to dermatologist across Connecticut and into New York City. Forty-six years later, Young Phar- maceuticals has 150 employees and sells 100 products to markets globally. Only 10 years ago, the company employed about 30 people, Kulesza said. Today, it makes annual sales worth tens-of-millions of dollars. "We are on our way to $100 million," Kulesza said in a recent interview. The growing beauty-products company is weeks away from occu- pying a new 20,000-square-foot office building headquarters on 21 acres along Progress Drive in Wethersfield. Kulesza owns the brick-veneer building that's been designed with a central section joining two larger hexagon-shaped wings. Built by PDS Engineering & Construction, the building is topped with a clock-tower cupola, and surrounded on three sides by a broad lawn interspersed with trees and bordered by plantings. The nearly $8 million construction project is modeled after a historic San Francisco-area estate that had impressed Kulesza in his youth, he said. It will host administrative staff, training rooms and laboratory space. "It basically gives us room for expansion," Kulesza said. "We are feeling the pain of growth and we need more space." Kulesza has owned the Progress Drive property for two decades. He committed to build there about two years ago as his company's space needs grew. In April, Kulesza also paid $1.77 million for a 12,347-square-foot commercial building along the Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield. Young Pharmaceuticals had long leased the building for its headquar- ters, and Kulesza said he opted to buy the property when it recently came up for sale. It will continue to house some administrative and back-office functions, Kulesza said. "We are a global business and there are markets that are expanding very rapidly," he said. Demand in Asian and Middle Eastern markets is booming. People in those regions want "highly transfor- mative" products, including moistur- izers, rejuvenating skin creams and products infused with hydroxy acids, he said. Kulesza said he secured a construction loan with around 4% interest from Liberty Bank. Other lenders were interested, but Liberty offered a lightning-fast closing and a local touch, Kulesza said. Liberty bankers also kept in touch throughout the construction process. "We did the deal in like two weeks," Kulesza said. "It should have taken six months. I love working with a local bank on a project of this nature. It takes a great interest in our business." More growth to come Kulesza said he still has plenty of room for additional buildings on Progress Drive. He is working with architect John Wilcox of East Hartford-based Russell and Dawson to design a 100,000-square-foot incubator building. The plan is to carve out 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot spaces for startup biotech companies that might find a mentor, perhaps even an investor, in Young Pharmaceuticals. Additional buildings could follow. Kulesza envisions a campus environment driven by partnerships. He said he's reached out to Farming- ton-based genomic research institute Jackson Laboratory, and the prox- imity of the UConn Health center is another plus. "I want to sit in my office and oversee incubators and maybe share a little of my experience," 67-year-old Kulesza said. His office will be decorated like few others — covered with dark-wood paneling featuring intricate carv- ings that had graced a library in an 18th-century English manor. Kulesza said he wanted something reminis- cent of the impressive libraries he's witnessed inside Newport, Rhode Island mansions. His interior designer — Donna Moss — found the paneling for him in a Norwalk auction house. Kulesza was able to knock down the price to $35,000. OFS Construc- tion in South Windsor restored the faded wood. Pursuit Construction, of Essex, handled the installation of numerous pieces. "We had extraordinary resources right under our nose in Connecticut to do something so beautiful and wonderful," Kulesza said of his company's new headquarters. Unconventional career Kulesza began organizing Young Pharmaceuticals during his senior year at Yale. Some of his university peers saw this as an odd choice. Most of his classmates were preparing for careers in medicine or law. Kulesza said he spent his time at Yale mixing business, science, accounting, statistics and chemistry classes. Success didn't come easy. His busi- ness plan was to provide samples to AT A GLANCE Company: Young Pharmaceuticals Industry: Cosmetics Top Executive: John Kulesza, CEO Employees: 150 Current HQ: 2411 Berlin Turnpike, Wethersfield New HQ: 105 Progress Drive, Wethersfield (by mid-July) Founded: 1977 Website: youngpharm.com Contact: info@youngpharm.com What advice would you have appreciated at the outset of your career? "Trust your instincts. It seems all the mistakes I have made in my business career have been when I went along with other people's ideas, contrary to my own gut feeling. Gut feelings are the synthesis of conscious and unconscious information in your brain. Nobody ever told me specifically to trust my instinct, but that is my advice to young people." John Kulesza, CEO, Young Pharmaceuticals

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