BOSTON, Jan. 25,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Yellow Wood Partners ("Yellow
Wood"), a Boston-based private
equity firm focused on investing in consumer brands and companies,
today announced that its portfolio company Suave Brands Company has
signed a binding offer to acquire the ChapStick brand from Haleon
(LSE / NYSE: HLN), a global leader in consumer health. The
transaction is intended to close in the first half of 2024 upon
completion of customary closing and regulatory approvals.
ChapStick invented the lip care category in the 1880s with the
launch of a now-iconic lip balm that made ChapStick a household
name. For more than a century, ChapStick has added products to its
portfolio with innovative new ingredients, skincare benefits, and
flavors. Today, ChapStick is the leader in lip care and synonymous
with the product category – it is the #1 brand by volume and has
over 80% brand awareness.
Suave Brands Company Chief Executive Officer Daniel Alter, said, "The Yellow Wood team
established Suave Brands Company in May
2023 to acquire the Suave brand from Unilever. We saw the
opportunity to grow Suave with a more focused management approach
while also creating the corporate infrastructure to acquire and
manage additional personal care brands across multiple categories
to drive synergies across the platform. We are excited to add
ChapStick, another leading brand with deep equity and history, into
our platform. At Suave Brands Company, our management team is
focused on building a platform of category leading brands that
consumers love while working with our retail customers and
manufacturing partners to grow the brands. We look forward to
continuing to build Suave Brands Company by identifying additional
personal care brands to add to the portfolio."
Suave is a value-oriented personal care brand that sells
products across the hair, body, skin and antiperspirant deodorant
segments. Suave was one of the first brands in the 1930s to bring
salon-quality hair care to the general public at an accessible
price. The Suave brand sells products for women, men and kids
across mass retailers, grocery stores, drug retailers, and
ecommerce platforms and today is found in one out of every two U.S.
households.
Dana Schmaltz, Partner at Yellow
Wood Partners, commented, "ChapStick is the #1 lip care brand in
the mass, drug, food and convenience store channels. Chapstick
products are purchased by one out of every five households in
the United States; consumers love
the brand. Chapstick has the highest brand awareness in lip care,
as well as the strongest purchase conversion among all brands in
the category. Similar to Suave, ChapStick will benefit from Suave
Brands Company's leadership, setting the brand up for continued
innovation and growth driven by increased consumer marketing
investments, as well as a more focused sales approach. We look
forward to completing this transaction in the first half of
2024."
Tad Yanagi, Partner at Yellow Wood Partners, added,
"ChapStick will be Yellow Wood's fifth corporate carveout
transaction in the past four years. The firm prides itself on
having become a trusted partner to CPG companies to carve brands
out and set them up for their next stage of growth. We appreciate
Haleon's collaboration on all levels and look forward to working
with them to complete the carveout expeditiously."
Yellow Wood's diverse portfolio of consumer brands also includes
global footcare brands Dr. Scholl's and Scholl International;
Beacon Wellness Brands, led by its anchor brand PlusOne®, the #1
sexual wellness device brand; beauty brands Real Techniques and
EcoTools; skincare brand Byoma, and self-tanning brands Isle of
Paradise, Tanologist and TanLuxe. In December, Yellow Wood
announced the pending acquisition of the Elida Beauty portfolio of
brands from Unilever. This platform includes leading brands such as
Q-Tips, Caress, TiGi, Ponds, St. Ives, and Noxzema, as well as
European brands including Brut, Impulse, Monsavon, and Timotei.
This transaction is scheduled to be consummated in 2024.
About ChapStick
ChapStick, the expert lip care brand, makes it a priority to help
people care for their lips all year round. Originally created in
the early 1880s, ChapStick is known today as America's favorite lip
balm. ChapStick offers a variety of products and fun flavors that
promote happier and healthier lips. For more information, please
visit www.chapstick.com.
About Suave Brands Company
Suave Brands Company was founded in 2023, when Yellow Wood Partners
acquired the Suave brand from Unilever and established it as a
standalone independent company. A platform was formed around Suave
to acquire and accelerate innovation and focus the growth of
affordably priced personal care brands. For more information,
please visit www.suave.com.
About Yellow Wood Partners
Yellow Wood Partners is a Boston-based private investment firm that
invests exclusively in the consumer industry in the middle market.
The firm seeks to acquire branded consumer products that sell into
a variety of consumer channels, including mass, drug, food,
specialty, value, club, and e-commerce. Yellow Wood's Consumer
Operating DNA investment and operating strategy is based on
utilizing the firm's functional operating resources to help
maximize brand performance by driving organic growth and increasing
operating efficiencies. The firm seeks to acquire additional brands
to create new platform investments and accelerate growth in its
limited number of platform portfolio companies. For more
information, please visit www.yellowwoodpartners.com.
About Haleon
Haleon (LSE / NYSE: HLN) is a global leader in consumer health,
with a purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity.
Haleon's product portfolio spans five major categories - Oral
Health, Pain Relief, Respiratory Health, Digestive Health and
Other, and Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (VMS). Its
long-standing brands - such as Advil, Sensodyne, Panadol, Voltaren,
Theraflu, Otrivin, Polident, parodontax and Centrum - are built on
trusted science, innovation and deep human understanding. For more
information, please visit www.haleon.com.
Contact: Chris Tofalli
Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
chris@tofallipr.com
914-834-4334
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SOURCE Yellow Wood Partners