Beauty and wellness company PDC Brands is being sold

By Deanna Utroske

- Last updated on GMT

Beauty and wellness company PDC Brands is being sold

Related tags Hair care brand Cvc capital partners Pdc

The private investment firm Yellow Woods currently owns PDC and its many mass-market hair, cosmetics, fragrance, and body care brands. This month a new firm announced plans to buy PDC, a deal that will likely close by the 30th.

Terms of the deal have not been made public. But the objectives are clear: growth by acquisition and further global expansion. PDC already retails in the US, the UK and some 60 other countries. And the brands it opts to buy often have an impressive growth trajectory of their own.

Acquisative

Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, PDC got its start as a fragrance company and has grown substantially in recent years, mainly by acquiring brands in other beauty and personal care categories.

Two years ago, as Cosmetics Design reported​, the company picked up bath brand Bodycology and the hair care brand Cantu from Advanced Beauty Inc. At the time Nielsen data showed that Cantu was the fastest growing multi-ethnic hair care brand in the States in terms of retail sales.

And, the Bodycology brand rounded out the company’s bath portfolio nicely. PDC has owned the legacy bath brand Calgon since 2012.

Those purchases weren’t exceptional but rather just stepping stones on the company’s path to growth. “We plan to expand even further by investing in our current brands as well as adding new and unique brands and products to our portfolio via acquisition,”​ James Stammer, CEO, told the press​ back in 2015.

Last year PDC bought Original Additions​, a beauty company known for its color brow products, and artificial eyelashes and fingernails.

Ambitious

All this deal making seems to be what enticed CVC to buy PDC. “We greatly look forward to working with James Stammer and his team as they extend their exceptional track record of acquiring and expanding consumer brands,” ​Cameron Breitner, a partner at the acquiring firm says in the press release announcing the deal. “We are excited about this rare opportunity to acquire a rapidly growing, multinational consumer products platform with a strong portfolio of brands and a proven management team,” ​notes Breitner.  

And the plan going forward sounds like more of the same, more acquisitions and more growth in the mass, drug, and supermarket channels for the company and its portfolio of global personal care and beauty brands. “We are very pleased to have this opportunity to extend CVC’s strong track record in the consumer sector.  Aligning with management teams to support their continued domestic and international growth is one of CVC’s core strengths, and we look forward to building upon the platform that management and Yellow Wood have so successfully developed,” ​Nishad Chande, managing director at CVC, tells the press

This next phase of investment and growth is good news for PDC as well. “We are thrilled to enter into this new chapter with CVC Capital Partners,” ​says Stammer. “We have significantly grown and diversified our portfolio in recent years, and we know that CVC will be able to support our future growth ambitions in both the US and abroad by leveraging their deep sector experience and global resources.”

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