ATLANTA — Arthur Bronner Sr. traveled town to town, beauty shop to beauty shop selling Sister C.J. Walker hair products before becoming a founder of Bronner Bros. which, for some, is the very definition of black hair care products.

Mr. Bronner’s sales route became the distribution network for Bronner Bros., founded in 1947, said his son, Art Bronner III of Norcross, Ga.

“He knew the back roads of Georgia like nobody’s business,” he said.

Mr. Bronner Sr. and his brother, the late Nathaniel Bronner, started the company by selling other brands and moved into developing their own products in the 1970s.

“Dad realized if they could make X amount of profit selling other people’s products how much more they could make selling their own,” his son said. Their first was BB Hair Food.

Though Bronner Bros. sold other brands to beauty shops, beauticians renamed them, saying, “I want some BB,” said his sister-in-law, Robbie Bronner of Atlanta. “When we came out with our first product, we knew it had to be named BB.”

Today, the company has 300 employees and offers more than 50 original hair care products. Its annual trade show draws thousands of stylists from around the country.

Arthur Edward Bronner Sr., 89, of Atlanta, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Piedmont Hospital.
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His winning ways won Bronner Bros. more than customers. When product manufacturers such as Revlon had a sales competition, Bronner Bros. always came out a winner, his son said. “His rapport with the hair stylists was so strong, they’d win every time,” he said.
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He was a leader in Wheat Street Baptist Church and had been president of the Men Who Usher for 18 years.