I am really disheartened by this corporate buyout. Burt’s Bees is a wonderful line of cosmetics and personal care products, with natural ingredients, and really good products. Originally, it was a great NC company, with a fine attitude of offering natural products that worked well. I have used them for the past five years, and have been very satisfied. The original owner sold the company a few years back, and, they still have lived up to their original task.
Now, the company is being sold to Clorox, for a hefty sum. Clorox is all about it:
Well. that’s the way it goes with profit structure, but it makes me damn sad. I’ll have to see if their product stays the same, but, it does make me less inclined to support it.
And, to be fair, Here’s the Burt’s Bees statement
Sigh. Clorox, of all places. Am I being too snitty here?
I never would have thought that Clorox was a company unto itself, as opposed to a brand owned by Proctor & Gamble or some other conglomerate.
The Clorox CEO’s statement reads like a parody of corporate-speak. And, sadly, it isn’t. Burt’s Bees’ statement is the epitome of PR spin. How the hell are they going to “continue on with our social mission to make people’s lives better every day, naturally” when they are owned by a company that considers them a source of " ‘green’ tailwinds"?
SWMBO and I went to see Martian Child last night. In the stuff that runs before the movie starts was some bullshit thing from Burt’s Bees about how we have to save the bees because they are all dying off. We thought it was a joke or a teaser for some kind of comedy. But it was for real.
“Green tailwinds” means, of course, that they don’t give a shit about the environment, but that they hope to buy off people by saying, “Look! We’ve got an environmentally friendly division! What more do you stinkin’ hippies want!?!”
In January, Clorox plans to introduce a line of eco-friendly products to be sold alongside its existing bleaches and cleanser…But AdAge points out that Burt’s already had plans in place to begin a distribution test with Wal-Mart Stores by year-end. Clorox and Burt’s Bees executives said the distribution power of Clorox, which already gets 26 percent of its sales from Wal-Mart, was a key factor in justifying the deal.
s. Clorox expects the Green Works line to cost about 20 percent to 25 percent more than its current products. link
This reminds me of years ago when Celestial Seasonings Tea, an herbal tea favorite in Boulder, Colorado, was acquired by Kraft Foods back in the 80’s. Since then, Celestial has merged with Hain Natural Foods (which has an alliance with Heinz).
It’s kinda sad, no question about it. This Link is from 2004, but it’s pretty interesting looking at who owns what. Seeds of Change is owned by M&M Mars Candy. Cascadian Farms is owned by General Mills.
I know it sounds all tin-foil-hat, but I wonder how long it’ll be before we’ll be buying everything from one parent retailer at differently named stores, banking at the same bank under different names, buying our fuel from the same distributor etc.
Burt’s used to bee (sorry) in just the little indie shops and whatnot, but as soon as it started showing up in the larger national chain stores, I knew where it was headed. Sad really, but then, take a look at Ben and Jerry’s…
Yep. Guess I’m heading out today to buy all the Burt’s Bees diaper creme I can find before they change the formula and it’s just as useless as every other zinc oxide cream out there…
I bought one of the little pouches of Burt’s Bees products a few years ago. Clear plastic pouch and, I think, four items. I used one of the items, but I don’t remember what it was. What I do remember is that I didn’t like the smell.
“The Burt’s Bees brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and “green” tailwinds,” said Clorox Chief Executive Donald R. Knauss. “It’s in an economically attractive category with a margin structure that will be highly accretive to Clorox.”
blah blah blah the green and/or organic market is growing while our core businesses are in stagnant markets with slim margins. Natural products provide a high margin growth market Clorox needs to take advantage of to to add shareholder value.
It says very little about buying people off - in fact its far MORE about taking your money than giving you anything - even a better feeling about Clorox. And environment, well, its a checkmark on their corporate citizenship sheet, but your right, they don’t give a shit.
The thing about big companies purchasing these small natural foods companies is from the big company perspective its a great match. Natural foods are pretty pricey - but because so many of the companies are small they don’t take advantage of economies of scope or scale. Big companies can buy them, take advantage of the economies involved, keep the price the same, and reap high margins.
The catch 22 for that industry is that there is only so much organic farmland - as organics mainstream - and as big corporations encourage them mainstreaming by distributing what used to be coop niche products into Kroger’s and SuperValue (and formerly small corporate natural foods grocers like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s go through rapid expansion), they are going to have huge sourcing issues.
If the desired outcome, let’s say neato greeny feelgood products, is the same,does it really matter what the motivation of the company is. Please do not think that the abundance of organic produce is because the companies behind them have this mission to save the earth. Organic products simply command a higher premium. It’s generally the same ubercorps bringing you the same product, with slight variations, but with a pretty label and some cutesy mission statement and a premium tag.
