BOSTON, November 4, 2019 – Yellow Wood Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on investing in consumer brands and companies, announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of the Dr. Scholl’s™ business from Bayer for $585 million.
With the completion of the transaction, Yellow Wood Partners is creating the Scholl’s Wellness Company (SWC), a stand-alone business under the leadership of newly appointed CEO Craig Stevenson, a 30-year veteran with consumer-package goods industry experience.
“Completion of this complex carve-out of Dr. Scholl’s™ is the culmination of months of hard work and I’m thrilled that we can now begin an exciting new chapter of growth and development with the creation of Scholl’s Wellness Company,” said Dana Schmaltz, Partner at Yellow Wood Partners. We are excited to be building a world class team at Scholl’s Wellness, and we look forward to working with Craig and the new management team. He brings significant leadership expertise having led several business units at Clorox, with his most recent position managing a portfolio of brands that included Global Burt’s Bees personal care and the Renew Life Probiotics business.”
“The SWC team is excited to partner with Yellow Wood to become the next steward of the iconic Dr. Scholl’s™ brand,” said Craig Stevenson, CEO of Scholl’s Wellness Company. We see tremendous opportunity to grow the brand with the more focused attention and dedicated resources within a standalone company. We plan to invest in all aspects of the business to drive growth and profitability to deliver value for all stakeholders.”
“The Dr. Scholl’s™ brand fits extremely well with the Yellow Wood consumer-focused business model where we bring our operational and financial resources to build a limited number of platform companies,” said Tad Yanagi, Partner at Yellow Wood Partners. “We believe there is significant opportunity to build the Scholl’s Wellness Company into a broader wellness business through both organic growth and additional acquisitions.”
Dr. Scholl’s™ is an iconic, one-of-a-kind brand, which is synonymous with foot care. The brand has an over 110-year heritage with unmatched brand equity in the foot care category and the #1 sales position in the most attractive segments – a true category leader. Dr. Scholl’s™ generated sales of $234 million in 2018.
About Yellow Wood Partners
Yellow Wood Partners is a Boston-based private investment firm that invests exclusively in the consumer industry in the middle market. The firm seeks to acquire branded consumer products across a variety of channels including mass, drug, food, specialty, club and e-commerce. Yellow Wood’s success in driving growth and operational efficiencies is based on the team’s combination of investment expertise and complementary marketing, sales, finance, operations, and international skills, which creates strong partnerships with the management teams of portfolio companies. For more information, please visit www.yellowwoodpartners.com.