Fourth brand carve-out over four years adds Q-tips®, Impulse, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Monsavon, Brut, and Alberto Balsam to Yellow Wood Portfolio
BOSTON, Dec. 18, 2023 — Yellow Wood Partners LLC (“Yellow Wood”), a Boston-based private equity firm focused on investing in consumer brands and companies, today announced a binding offer to acquire Elida Beauty, a portfolio of brands from Unilever (NYSE: UL). The Elida Beauty portfolio includes Unilever brands Q-tips®, Impulse, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Monsavon, Brut, Moussel, Alberto Balsam, and VO5.
Tad Yanagi, Partner at Yellow Wood Partners, commented, “We are excited to work with Unilever’s Elida Beauty team on the carve out and lead these brands into their next phase of growth and expansion. Consumers around the world love these brands as they are an important part of their daily lives. We believe the Elida Beauty brands will flourish in the Yellow Wood operating model where our teams will work to build and enhance growth and accessibility of this new platform. Our prior relationship with the Unilever team helped us understand the potential of Elida Beauty.”
Dana Schmaltz, Yellow Wood Partner, added, “We look forward to completing another successful transaction with Unilever to acquire these great consumer brands. Our partnership with Unilever continues to grow and we are excited to bring such fantastic brands as Q-tips®, Caress, and VO5 among others into the Yellow Wood portfolio. Our team has become adept at leading complex corporate carve-outs and creating the critical functions required of an independent company to implement strategies to achieve long-term growth. This will be our fourth brand carve out from a major CPG company over the last four years, and we look forward to continuing our differentiated strategy to acquire other brands in the future.”
Yellow Wood’s diverse portfolio of consumer brands includes The Suave Brands Company; leading global footcare brand 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; self-tanning brands Isle of Paradise, Tanologist and TanLuxe; and skincare brands Byoma and Freeman Beauty.
The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2024 upon completion of customary closing and regulatory approvals.
About Elida Beauty
Elida Beauty was formed in 2021 and its original beauty and personal care brands included Q-tips, Tigi, Caress, Timotei, Impulse, Monsavon, others (Fissan, Williams, Noxzema, Brylcreem, V05, Lever 2000, Badedas, Matey). In 2022, it became a formalised Global Business Unit within Unilever Personal Care and more brands were added: Alberto Balsam, Brut, Pond’s (for North American and Europe only), and St. Ives (for North American and Europe only). The transaction perimeter excludes the Pond’s and St. Ives brands sold beyond North America and Europe which will remain in Unilever’s Beauty & Wellbeing brand portfolio.
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 to increase operating efficiencies. The firm further seeks to acquire additional brands to accelerate growth in its limited number of platform companies. For more information, please visit www.yellowwoodpartners.com.
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