Vidal Sassoon is not a happy man.

The hair stylist made waves last week with his suit against Procter & Gamble Co., charging that it had relegated the brand that bears his name "to disrepute and bargain-basement sales bins."

In an interview, Sassoon said he wants termination of his licensing deal with P&G, and would buy the brand and rights to his name back "in a minute." But P&G has rebuffed any efforts to sell or promote the Vidal Sassoon brand, he said.

P&G, which has pulled the products from U.S. and European store shelves because of low sales, has said it was disappointed in the suit.

Some other tidbits from Sassoon:

• Sassoon was to get 1.5 percent of global revenue from sale of Vidal Sassoon products, which peaked at about $469 million in the mid-1990s. Those sales since have fallen to about $200 million, he said.

• A personal-services deal with P&G required Sassoon to spend 65 days a year helping P&G with promotional events. He said he more than doubled that last year.

• Former P&G chairman John Pepper told Sassoon last summer that P&G "wouldn't think of allowing the brand to fall into the hands of (competitors) L'Oreal or Unilever," according to Sassoon.

"We all obviously agree then that they could do a far better job than P&G has done," Sassoon responded. "It would be difficult to do worse."

Lights out

With leaders of the Cincinnati boycott threatening to take their protest national, local companies are trying their best to spread the word about their good deeds here at home.

For Kroger Co., one of those starts Sunday, when it will close its Vine Street store in Over-the-Rhine to prepare for a total overhaul.

A partnership of Megen Construction and Messer Construction are general contractors on the $1.7 million project, and at least half of the work will be done by local minority-owned subcontractors, said Lynn Marmer, group vice president of corporate affairs.

A new chief

With business schools all over the country looking for more connections to - and sponsorships from - the corporate community, expect the same emphasis from Xavier University's Williams College of Business under its new dean.

Ali Malekzadeh, an Iranian native announced in late March as a successor to Mike Webb, will come this summer from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

While at St. Cloud, Malekzadeh pushed corporate advisory boards for all business-school departments, and made working with local CEOs a top priority, according to XU.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com