Clorox is best known for selling bleach. But the company
recently purchased the natural cosmetics line Burt’s Bees.
That billion dollar sale is part of a growing trend of big multi-
nationals buying up small natural products companies. Julie
Grant reports:
Transcript
Clorox is best known for selling bleach. But the company
recently purchased the natural cosmetics line Burt’s Bees.
That billion dollar sale is part of a growing trend of big multi-
nationals buying up small natural products companies. Julie
Grant reports:
Matt Kohler is a brand manager for Clorox. He says every
day the company is getting greener. It recently bought Burt’s
Bees, which is known for its beeswax lip balms, lotions, and
shampoos. But nearly as important to many people – is that
the company was started by a man who just loved tending
bees. They like seeing a picture of the thick-bearded bee-
man Burt Shavitz on each label. Clorox’s Kohler says
consumers want to buy into that ecologically minded spirit.
“Well, I think if you look at marketplace right now, and where
we’re seeing growth, two of the major trends that are driving
growth, one is health and wellness, and then the second
piece is around sustainability. The nice part is where you
can have products that actually overlap both of trends. They
cover health and wellness and they cover sustainability at
the same time. That’s kind of the sweet spot for growth in
company.”
Kohler says Clorox can help Burt’s Bees – by getting it on
the shelves at Wal-Mart and other big stores. But he says
Burt’s will remain semi-independent…so it can maintain its
own spirit and culture.
“I’m excited about it. I think it really offers not just potential
growth for company. But products that we love and believe
in and that consumers are passionate about.”
But the online buzz about the purchase has not been
favorable. A health blog on The Chicago Tribune
website is similar to many others. Comments range from,
quote, “Say it ain’t, so,” to “I was horrified,” to “We will be
dropping Burt’s from our shelves since we don’t feel the
‘mission’ of the new owners aligns very will with the mission
of our retail operations.”
“You know it’s certainly raised a lot of eyebrows, I think,
within the environmental community.”
Alex Scranton is with the group Women’s Voices for the
Earth.
“I think a lot of people are looking at it differently because
Clorox does own it. And they’re a little bit concerned that
Clorox may not be able to keep to all the commitments that
Burt’s Bees originally had. So I think there are certainly
some consumers who are wondering where the
accountability is and how do we make sure that Burt’s Bees
stays as true as it had been?”
There have been lots of similar buyouts of natural products
companies in recent years. Colgate-Palmolive, one of the
biggest oral care companies in the world, purchased Tom’s
of Maine, a niche toothpaste company known for decades
for using only natural ingredients. Leading cosmetics
company Estee Lauder acquired Aveda, an environmentally
friendly skin and hair care products line, and multinational
giant Unilever bought socially-conscious Ben and Jerry’s ice
cream company.
Tom Lyon is the Chair of Sustainable Science, Technology,
and Commerce at the University of Michigan Business
School. He says the bigger companies can give smaller
companies stronger financial security without changing the
products. But in some cases, like at Ben and Jerry’s, lots of
employees leave.
“They don’t feel that the Ben and Jerry’s that operates within
Unilever is the same company, the same small company,
that it was years ago. And it’s not. Small companies have
to adjust when they’re bought by larger entities. And the
culture is going to change.”
Lyon says the sense of shared commitment at a small,
socially-conscious startup company can make it feel like a
family. He says many people attracted to that type of
workplace aren’t at home in a large conglomerate. So he
says Ben and Jerry’s, for example, lost lots of its committed,
innovative employees.
As consumer demand for natural products grows, Lyon
expects more big corporations will buyout small, green
companies in the future.
“And every time it happens we’ll feel a little bit bad about it.
But I think the consolation is that we’re gradually seeing the
overall market become much greener. And so we take a
little comfort in that.”
JG: “Why do you think we feel bad about it?”
“When we see a small company get bought up I think we feel
like there’s a loss in the culture somewhere. It’s almost a
kind of biodiversity that’s lost. And yet there are some gains
at the same time as that product becomes more widely
available.”
As Burt’s Bees becomes more widely available, Clorox is
anticipating growth from Burt’s. Like a lot of big corporations
that are acquiring smaller green companies, it’s expecting to
cash in on the growing interest in the ideals and practices
that built those small environmentally-friendly companies.
For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.
