Unilever Sells Dollar Shave Club 🪒

Author

CPG WIRE
October 28, 2023

GM and Happy Saturday, folks. There’s no Big Story this morning but we have some juicy headlines to dive into. Here’s a preview

  • DSC has a new owner 🪒

  • Diageo sells Windsor Global 🥃

  • McConaughey launches tequila 🆕

  • KDP partners with Electrolit 📈

  • Athletic Brewing heads to TGI Fridays 🍻

Shout-out to our partner Rivo.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Unilever has sold a majority stake in Dollar Shave Club to Nexus Capital Management, a private equity firm. Unilever originally purchased the DTC razor brand for $1B in 2016. Nexus will own 65% of DSC while Unilever will hold the remaining 35%. Sadly terms of the deal were not disclosed. Inc

  • Global spirits firm Diageo has sold Windsor, a premium blended scotch brand, to PT W & Co., a South Korean private equity firm. Diageo originally had an agreement to sell Windsor for $163M last year, but that deal fell apart. Most of the other major spirits players — including Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard — have been divesting brands no longer deemed strategically important. Most recently, Brown-Forman sold Finlandia Vodka for $220M. Diageo 

  • Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin is exploring a possible sale that could value the company at $1.35B. Marcolin designs and manufactures eyewear for the likes of Tom Ford, Zegna, and many others. Yahoo Finance

Fundraising

  • Algenesis, a material science startup that produces bio-based plastic alternatives, secured $5M in funding. First Bight Ventures led the round while Circulate Capital and a number of others participated. Algenesis produces bioPolyurethane (bioPU) which is fully biodegradable and backyard compostable. PR Newswire

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Kith partnered with premium stroller brand Bugaboo to launch a luxury AF stroller that retails for a cool $1,500 🔽 Trend Hunter

  • Fast-growing sportswear brand ON is opening their second store in London. The company opened their first-ever London store earlier this year. RLI

  • There’s a stunning new French skincare brand called PERS which recently launched. Co-founded by Quentin Douce and Sophie-Lisa Prêcheur, PERS focuses on clean ingredients and providing an easy to follow skincare routine. Gorgeous packaging across the board 🔽 WWD

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves launched a new tequila brand called Pantalones Organic Tequila. A celebrity launching a tequila brand is obviously kind of trite, but this might work simply because McConaughey is largely beloved and actually parties 🔽 The Spirits Business

  • Kraft Heinz has expanded its partnership with Taco Bell and will become the primary manufacturer of Taco Bell’s retail products. Lancaster Colony Corporation makes a fortune manufacturing and selling retail condiments for Chick-fil-A and Buffalo Wild Wings, so this could be big business for Kraft Heinz. Food Business News

  • Australian sustainable vodka brand UGLY teased some new RTD cocktails on Instagram. UGLY launched in late 2022 and is best known for fighting food waste by converting “ugly apples” into vodka. Their packaging is always fun 🔽 Instagram

  • Rapid hydration brand Electrolit announced a distribution agreement with CSD giant Keurig Dr Pepper. This is a low-key massive win for Electrolit. When Polar Seltzer partnered with KDP in 2020 they were largely a regional brand, but after a few years, Polar became one of the fastest-growing seltzer brands with a nationwide presence. BevNET

Data 🖥️

  • Beverage brand PRIME is on pace to become the #1 sports drink brand in the UK by end of year. The fact that PRIME might beat Lucozade, which has been marketed as a sports beverage in the UK since 1983, this quickly is an absolutely wild accomplishment. Twitter

Distribution News 🚚

  • The Pizza Cupcake launched at select Target stores across the East Coast and Midwest. They also launched nationwide at Kroger last week.

  • Non-alc brewer Athletic Brewing launched nationwide at TGI Fridays.

  • UK-based haircare brand Noughty launched at Shoppers Drug Mart and Walmart in Canada.