Stung by a series of setbacks including widespread anti-smoking legislation, legendary lighter maker Zippo is diversifying its business with a goal of making 50 percent of its products nonsmoking items by 2010.

Its nonlighter goods already include knives and Italian-made fashion accessories, such as handbags and briefcases. But as it marks its 75th anniversary this year, Zippo is shifting some of its focus to a line of multipurpose lighters used for fireplaces, barbecue grills and outdoors activities.

The diversity strategy, said Greg Booth, Zippo's president and chief executive officer, should help offset the hits Zippo has taken the last few years from the anti-smoking movement, airport security regulations and offshore knockoffs.

"Our corporate plan is to diversify," Mr. Booth said in a phone interview this week from the company's headquarters in Bradford, McKean County. "We'll continue to do what we do the best: manufacture items that generate flame. But we'll add and diversify with products that are nonsmoking related."

Since Bradford native George Blaisdell founded Zippo in 1932 to produce a rectangular, hinged-lid lighter that could resist gusts of wind while people lit their cigarettes, the company's lighters have been featured in Hollywood movies, gone to war with U.S. troops and spawned collectors clubs around the world. And, as always, Zippo's products are sold with a lifetime guarantee.

Annual sales for the company, which still is owned by Mr. Blaisdell's descendants, are about $140 million for its core lighter products, $40 million for the W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co., and about $10 million for Zippo Fashion Italia.

While all three divisions are growing, Mr. Booth said, there have been challenges.

Tighter airport policies following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hurt Zippo's business among duty-free shoppers and tourists who wanted to buy lighters with logos as gifts.

"Purchases like that came to a screeching halt," said Mr. Booth, who said the company cut about 50 jobs and lost between $4 million and $5 million a year on sales of gift lighters after the security crackdowns. "That's a tough hit in terms of dollars and the community and overall economy of the region." The company employs about 760 at its Bradford facilities.

In August the Transportation Security Administration eased the restrictions, allowing passengers to once again carry common lighters on board. Travelers now can pack lighters without fuel in checked luggage or two lighters containing fuel if they are in a government-authorized case.

Zippo is trying to rebuild the revenues lost to security restrictions through a public awareness campaign aimed at informing travelers "They now can take their Zippo lighters back on the plane in checked luggage and in the cabin," Mr. Booth said. "We want people to know their lighters won't be confiscated, they can take them on board. We think we will get a portion of that business back."

To stem a surge of counterfeit imitations, especially in China, Zippo has been working with federal trade officials and foreign governments to uncover manufacturing and warehouse facilities for the knockoffs and in some cases make arrests.

"But it takes an awful long time to get the message across that it's wrong, and you must stop, and we're going to prosecute and put you in jail," said Mr. Booth.

Perhaps an even tougher challenge to Zippo's business are anti-smoking bans sweeping the United States, as well as other parts of the world.

Mr. Booth attributed a drop of between 3 percent and 4 percent in the company's wholesale distribution in the United States this year to a decline in smoking.

"It's certainly had an effect. We're not naive and we certainly don't feel the anti-smoking pressure is going to do anything but increase our strategy to diversify our product line," he said.

Zippo bought the Bradford-based Case cutlery business, which includes pocket knives and knives for hunting, fishing and camping, in 1993. Fashion Italia, a line of men's and women's accessories including purses, briefcases, belts, wallets and shoes, was acquired in 2004.

"We're always looking for acquisitions," Mr. Booth said.

But its real diversification within the lighter segment began in 2002 with the introduction of its multipurpose lighter or MPL, followed by a mini MPL, the Outdoor Utility Lighter and the Zippo Hand Warmer.

Sold in retail chains and specialty outlets, the nonsmoking lighters "are reaching a completely different target audience," including more women and outdoors enthusiasts, said Mr. Booth. "They've had excellent consumer acceptance."

Zippo is not abandoning its roots in the production of lighters for smokers, however. Its newest product, rolled out in August, is a refillable butane gas lighter -- the Zippo Blu -- which has resulted in 85 new jobs at the Bradford plant. Under development since 2001, it retails for $39.95 and while early sales "have been very strong, it's too early to tell ... whether it is going to be a home run for us," Mr. Booth said.

A Bradford native, Mr. Booth is the third nonfamily member to run Zippo. After earning a biology degree in 1971 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, he planned to study pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh. He took a job in a Bradford refinery to earn money for graduate school and decided to stay in business, eventually landing in Philadelphia with Sunoco.

He returned to his hometown in 1999 to run Case and was tapped as president and chief executive officer of Zippo in 2001 by George Duke, a grandson of the company founder who is Zippo's chairman.

The 75th anniversary has provided Mr. Booth an opportunity to learn some of the trivia surrounding Zippo, such as the number of movies in which the lighter has appeared (more than 1,500) and the first property Zippo licensed for a design (Elvis Presley).

He also knows the highest price ever fetched for a Zippo: $37,000 at an auction this summer for a 1933 original in pristine condition with no logo.

"It's eye-opening to say the least," said Mr. Booth.