Unilever’s Elida Beauty Sold To Yellow Wood Partners

Boston-based private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners LLC has announced a binding offer to acquire Elida Beauty from Unilever. The Elida Beauty portfolio includes well-known brands in personal care and beauty including  Q-tips, Impulse, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Monsavon, Brut, Moussel, Alberto Balsam, and VO5.

The transaction excludes the Pond’s and St. Ives brands sold beyond North America and Europe. These will remain in Unilever’s Beauty & Wellbeing brand portfolio, according to Yellow Wood.

Speculation that Elida was on the auction block ramped up more recently, as reported by Happi.com last week.

Elida Beauty Business Unit

Elida Beauty, formed in 2021, generated turnover of around €0.8 billion last year, according to Unilever.

Elida Beauty’s original beauty and personal care brands included Q-tips, Tigi, Caress, Timotei, Impulse, Monsavon, others such as Fissan, Williams, Noxzema, Brylcreem, V05, Lever 2000, Badedas and Matey. In 2022, it became a formalized CBU within Unilever Personal Care and more brands were added, namely Alberto Balsam, Brut, Pond’s (North America and Europe only), and St. Ives (North America and Europe only).

“This marks another step towards the optimization of our Personal Care portfolio,” said Fabian Garcia, president of Unilever Personal Care.”Our priority is to step up the growth of our Power Brands by investing behind key strategic focus areas such as driving unmissable brand superiority and scaling multi-year innovations. Elida Beauty’s portfolio comprises iconic and classic beauty and personal care brands. I am sure under the new ownership they will continue to prosper and serve consumers across North America and Europe.”

Financial terms have not been disclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2024 upon completion of customary closing and regulatory approvals.

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

“Elida Beauty has an exciting future following the proposed acquisition by Yellow Wood Partners and I look forward to the next stage of our journey,” said Jean-Laurent Ingles, CEO of Elida Beauty.

Yellow Wood's Growing Portfolio

This is Yellow Wood’s fourth brand carve out from a major CPG company in as many years. 

Yellow Wood’s portfolio of consumer brands includes The Suave Brands Company, which it acquired from Unilever earlier this year; footcare brand Dr. Scholl’s and Scholl International (acquired from Reckitt); EcoTools; Isle of Paradise, Tanologist and TanLuxe tanning brands; Byoma and Freeman Beauty; and Beacon Wellness Brands, owner of PlusOne, a sexual wellness device brand.

Yellow Wood was ranked No. 44 in Happi's 2023 Top 50 Report.

Aditional Reading

Happi's 2023 Top 50 Report