Freeman Beauty acquisition signals intent to go global

Yellow Wood Partners just announced buying the personal care company and has plans to work with the existing senior management team at Freeman Beauty to expand business in current channels as well as into new markets internationally.

Freeman Beauty was previously owned by the private equity firm Champlain Capital. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company’s portfolio of brands comprises Beauty Infusions facial masks, Feeling Beautiful facial masks, Feeling Legendary facial masks for men, Psssst! dry shampoo, c.Booth bath and body care products, and Bare Foot treatments.

With these brands, “Freeman has a proven track record of bringing nature-inspired and efficacious products quickly to the mass channel,” Tad Yanagi, Partner at Yellow Wood, tells the press, “and we expect to optimize their new product development initiatives by focusing on the key brands.  We hope to leverage our success in beauty and personal care to build on Freeman’s leading position in the market and help guide the company through an extraordinary period of growth.”

Currently, Freeman Beauty brands are sold in mass, food, and drug retail stores as well as in specialty beauty stores and via ecommerce.

Going global

With the help of Yellow Wood Partners, Freeman will likely expand beyond the US and Canada and establish a more extensive international business. “We believe there is a substantial opportunity to grow distribution with all of our customers, and especially to expand outside of the U.S. and Canada into international markets including South America and Europe,” explains Jon Achenbaum, CEO of Freeman, in a press release about the acquisition.

He also believes that “the team at Yellow Wood fully understands our brands and customers, and together with their functional-area operating experience can help expand our products to new and existing categories and identify consumers around the world who will enjoy our products.”

Profitability

Yellow Wood Partners specializes in consumer brands and has an in-house team of professionals with expertise in investing as well as in marketing, sales, finance, operations, and international consumer business.

“Yellow Wood’s focus is to partner with great brands with strong consumer loyalty where we can help accelerate growth and assist with cost efficiencies.  We have great confidence in the future potential of Freeman’s brands and look forward to working with Jon Achenbaum and his team to fully expand into new and existing channels,” Dana Schmaltz, founding partner of Yellow Wood Partners, says in the release.