The frothy beauty and wellness investment market just got a new player. Better For You Wellness, Inc. is a Columbus, Ohio-based blank-check company exploring and evaluating opportunities in the food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods categories.
The SPAC has entered into a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Ironwood Clay Co Inc., a specialized OEM skincare supplier that is a Health Canada, FDA, Halal, GMP, and ECOCERT/COSMOS accredited facility established in 1988. Ironwood's NENA Skincare brand would also be part of the deal. The rapidly growing natural skincare brand based on glacial oceanic clay is distributed DTC, on Amazon, and at hundreds of retail locations across Canada.
Better appearance, better nutrition and better health are three major wellness categories for consumers, and by making this profitable, vertically-integrated acquisition within the natural beauty and skincare space, Better For You Wellness can begin carving out market share in all three wellness categories," commented Ian James, Chief Executive Officer of Better For You Wellness, Inc. "After all, skin is our largest organ, and what we put on our bodies is just as important as what we put in them.”
Better For You Wellness enters the increasingly competitive market for beauty and wellness assets. The clock is ticking on three SPACs formed earlier this year; Powered Brands, Waldencast Acquisition Corp, and AF Acquisition Corp. have yet to close deals.
Powered Brands was founded by serial entrepreneur Katherine Power, co-founder and CEO of media company Who What Wear and founder and CEO of beauty brands Versed and Merit, and Dana Settle, founding partner at venture capital firm Greycroft. The goal is a global conglomerate of sustainable and digitally focused beauty, wellness, and personal care brands. Powered Brands is reported to be looking to acquire between $800 million and $1.5 billion worth of assets.
Waldencast Acquisition Corp. is a multi-brand beauty and personal care company that was formed by Michel Brousset, founder of beauty investment firm Waldencast Ventures and former Group President of L'Oréal, who will serve as CEO, and Felipe Dutra, former CFO Anheuser-Busch InBev, who will serve as Executive Chairman. Waldencast is expected to looking for deals in the $1.5 billion to $3 billion range.
AF Acquisition Corp. is led by Chief Executive Officer Jordan Gaspar, Chief Financial Officer Christopher Bradley, and President and Chairman of the Board Andrew Scharf. The company intends to focus its search on companies in the food and beverage, health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and pet industries.
With new players in the beauty and wellness investment landscape such as SPACs to DTC brands driving growth through bolt-on acquisitions, to aggregators rolling up brands on Amazon, there have never been more options for an exit.
