Newly formed stand-alone platform Suave Brands
Company is led by CEO Daniel Alter,
experienced consumer goods executive with Unilever
BOSTON, May 9, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- Yellow Wood Partners LLC ("Yellow Wood"), a
Boston-based private equity firm
focused on investing in consumer brands and companies, has
completed the previously announced acquisition of the beauty and
personal care brand, Suave, in North
America from Unilever (NYSE: UL).
With the completion of the transaction, Yellow Wood Partners is
creating the Suave Brands Company (SBC), a newly formed stand-alone
business created to support the Suave brand under the leadership of
newly appointed CEO Daniel Alter, a
20-year Unilever veteran with global strategy and operations
expertise. The company will be headquartered in New Jersey.
Dana Schmaltz, Partner of Yellow
Wood Partners, said, "The widely known Suave brand has a long
heritage and strong consumer loyalty, selling over 250 million
units annually and is present in 1 out of every 2 homes in America.
Our firm's extensive experience working with multi-national branded
consumer packaged goods companies, such as Unilever, Bayer and
Reckitt, will enable us to successfully transition Suave to an
independent company within the Yellow Wood portfolio and accelerate
its growth. Our deep expertise in the consumer goods sector and
with large mass, grocery, drug, and ecommerce retailers will help
us enhance Suave's closeness with consumers and product innovation.
In addition to carving out Suave and establishing an independent
infrastructure, we are building the Suave Brands Company into a
beauty & personal care platform focused on democratizing
trends, making them accessible to a broader consumer base. To
deliver on this goal, the Suave Brands Company will acquire beauty
& personal care brands across multiple categories, including
hair, skin, body, and more, that will drive synergies across the
platform."
Suave, the foundational brand of the Suave Brands Company, 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 beauty & personal care products for women, men and kids
across mass retailers, grocery stores, drug retailers, and
ecommerce platforms. The brand's products include hair care and
body care products including shampoos, conditioners, hair styling
products, body wash, antiperspirants and deodorants, and skin
care.
Tad Yanagi, Partner of Yellow
Wood Partners, commented, "We are excited about Suave's ability to
benefit from the growing consumer demand for value-based brands.
There is great opportunity to do more with Suave's leading brand
awareness and consumer loyalty and to lead that effort we are
pleased to welcome Daniel Alter as
CEO. His and Yellow Wood's deep branded CPG experiences will help
Suave execute on new growth levers to build the business and
identify new personal care brand acquisitions."
Mr. Alter brings to Suave Brands Company 20 years of global
strategy, brand development, and general management experience
during his tenure in international operating roles across beauty
& personal care with Unilever. "I am excited to partner with
Yellow Wood to lead the Suave Brands company and set the brand up
for its next stage of growth. Our shared vision is to build the
Suave Brands Company into an industry leading beauty & personal
care platform, delivering high quality products at an accessible
price for consumers across North
America."
In addition to Suave, Yellow Wood's diverse portfolio of
consumer brands includes 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.
Houlihan Lokey acted as financial
advisor to Yellow Wood on the transaction. Fried, Frank, Harris,
Shriver & Jacobson LLP provided legal counsel to
Yellow Wood.
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 while acquiring additional brands into a
limited number of platform companies in its concentrated investment
portfolio. For more information, please visit
www.yellowwoodpartners.com.
Contact:
Chris Tofalli
Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
chris@tofallipr.com
914-834-4334
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yellow-wood-partners-completes-acquisition-of-suave-north-american-beauty-and-personal-care-brands-from-unilever-301818970.html
SOURCE Yellow Wood Partners