Private equity player expands footprint in US personal care
Although terms and conditions of the deal were not revealed, Brynwood did stress that the acquisition would serve to highlight recent investments in the personal care sector, helping to build on its expertise and strategy for further development in this area.
The company was acquired under Brynwoods’s latest fund, Brynwood VI, and the plan is to continue to operate Newhall Laboratories as an independent platform, with the intention of further developing and growing the business.
Newhall Laboratories is based in Santa Clarita, California, and is the manufacturer and marketer of three primary brands, which include a complete range of hair care, hair styling and skin care products marketed under the GroWorks, Monkey Brains and la bella brands.
la bella brand targets hispanic market
The brand with the biggest footprint is la bella, which has proved to be particularly popular with Hispanic communities in the US and is currently fast growing. In particular it is recognized as the number one hair styling brand in the value-added category.
The GroWorks brand is primarily targeted at the hair care segment, with a particular focus on conditioning and styling, while the Monkey Brains brand is also focused on hair care, providing shampoo, conditioner and styling products targeted at the tween market.
“We believe that this will be a great new platform investment for our firm and look forward to not only bringing renewed attention and energy to la bella, Monkey Brains and GroWorks, but also to adding complementary brand to the company in the future,” said Dario Margve, managing partner, Brynwood VI.
Brynwood expands by targeting mature hair care brands
Brynwood has previously acquired J.B. Williams Company, a marketer of leading cosmetic and personal care brands that include Brylcreem, Lectric and Williams Mug Soap – all of which are distributed nationwide in the US.
More recently the company formed high Ridge Brands, which was the result of two separate transactions to buy high profile hair care brands from two of the biggest personal care players in the world, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.
It the two separate deals it acquired Zest personal cleansing from P&G in January 2011 and the Alberto VO5 and Rave hair care brands from Unilever in August of this year, both of which are now traded under the High Ridge Brands name, as part of the Brynwood VI platform.
Brynwood VI had a turnover in excess of $200m in the first nine months of the current financial year.
