Boston-based private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners announced the formation of a new sexual wellness platform with the acquisition of several brands from Clio.
WHO: Beacon Wellness Brands is a Newton, MA-based sexual wellness, beauty, and personal care platform that markets and sells sexual wellness devices under the PlusOne and Deia brands, branded beauty tools under the Plum Beauty brand, and beauty and grooming products under the Clio, PalmPerfect, and Mowbie brands. Beacon Wellness was formed by acquiring brands from its predecessor company, Clio. Its products are sold in over 20,000 retail locations nationwide and online, including Walmart, Target, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreen, Meijer, and Amazon.
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 that sell into a variety of consumer channels, including mass, drug, food, specialty, value, club, and e-commerce.
WHY: Yellow Wood's investment and operating strategy is based on utilizing the firm's functional operating resources to help maximize brand performance by driving organic growth and increasing operating efficiencies while acquiring additional brands into a limited number of platform companies in its concentrated investment portfolio.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Jennifer Roach, Principal at Yellow Wood, said, "Sexual wellness has become a key pillar of personal wellness—alongside physical, nutritional, and emotional wellness. Consumers are increasingly thinking of sexual wellness as a sphere of their life integral to their holistic happiness and deserving of proactive focus. Sexual wellness is a high growth category supported by self-care trends and increasing consumer adoption, and PlusOne and Deia will help us launch Beacon as a broader sexual wellness platform. We look forward to leveraging the brand's leadership in retail to further expand distribution, launch new products and identify growth opportunities through acquisitions."
Jamie Leventhal, founder of Clio, said, "The sexual wellness category is evolving and becoming less taboo as consumers are increasingly more educated about their overall wellness and quality of life. Beacon Wellness is well positioned to capitalize on existing trends and from Yellow Wood's experience investing in global consumer brands and health-focused companies."
Tad Yanagi, Partner at Yellow Wood, added, "We are excited to partner with Jamie and his team to further build out the Beacon Wellness platform in the emerging intimate wellness sector. The PlusOne brand has helped to institutionalize the sexual wellness category by making it approachable, affordable, and accessible to millions of consumers through drug and mass channels, becoming the #1 brand in the category."
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