Yellow Wood Partners’ Suave Brands acquiring ChapStick from Haleon

Yellow Wood Partners’ portfolio company Suave Brands has signed a binding offer to acquire the ChapStick brand from Haleon. 

Expected to close in the first half of 2024 upon the completion of customary closing and regulatory approvals, ChapStick helped mold the current shape of the lip care category following its launch in the 1880s.

“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,” Suave Brands chief executive officer Daniel Alter, said. “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.”

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The Suave Brands division focuses on products across the hair, body, skin and antiperspirant categories for men, women and children that is currently available across mass retailers, grocery stores, drug retailers and e-commerce platforms. 

“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,” said Dana Schmaltz, partner at Yellow Wood Partners. “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.”

Brands part of Yellow Wood’s portfolio include Dr. Scholl’s and Scholl International, Beacon Wellness and its anchor brand PlusOne, Real Techniques, EcoTools, Byoma, Isle of Paradise, Tanologist and TanLuxe. 

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“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,” said Tad Yanagi, partner at Yellow Wood Partners.