Dallas Hunt family member buys the The Pillow Bar

Pillow Bar founder Merrimac Dillon sold her business to another Dallas woman who was already a big customer of the pillow maker’s products.

“My whole family is a fan of The Pillow Bar,” said Connie Kleinert Babikian, 31, the new majority owner and president of The Pillow Bar.

Dillon, 62, said she was ready to hand over the company, founded in 2008, to a new generation. “It’s about time someone more tech-savvy took over, and I’m lucky Connie was interested,” she said.

Conditions of sale were not disclosed. The Pillow Bar has annual sales of more than $ 2 million and manufactured 22,000 pillows in the last year. It supplies more than 400 retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Bed Bath & Beyond. Dillon has expanded the product line to include bedding, swimwear, loungewear, accessories and gift items.

The pillow bar had the right product for the stay-at-home economy of the pandemic. The business saw double-digit year-over-year growth, and Dillon said she anticipates this will continue through 2021 and beyond.

Kleinert Babikian comes from an entrepreneurial family. She is the granddaughter of Dallas billionaire real estate developer Ray Hunt. Her mother, Ashlee Kleinert, owns a fleet of food trucks, including the gourmet cheese sandwiches from her Ruthie’s Rolling Café.

Merrimac Dillon is photographed with her U-shaped travel pillow, which Oprah Winfrey named a favorite in 2018. (Shaban Athuman / staff photographer)

“I knew in the back of my mind all my life that I would run my own business,” said Kleinert Babikian.

After earning a degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from UCLA, she first embarked on the corporate path, knowing it wouldn’t last forever. She worked as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs and most recently for Hunt Oil Co.

When she heard that The Pillow Bar might be for sale, Kleinert Babikian said: “I was in the right place and at the right moment for myself.”

The company has “an incredible foundation and team to grow it,” said Kleinert Babikian.

Dillon’s daughter, Calee Dillon, is Vice President of Marketing at The Pillow Bar, which has 11 employees, all women.

Dillon holds onto a minority stake and said she’ll be there if necessary, but mostly “I’ll sit by the pool.”

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

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