Procter & Gamble Invests in Multicultural Future

By | January 2, 2019

Tristan Walker, chief executive officer of Walker & Company Brands, speaks during a Bloomberg West Television interview in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. Walker & Company Brands develops products to make health and beauty simple for people of color. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Tristan WalkerBLOOMBERG NEWS

Bevel, the razor company that’s in tune with cultural skincare trends has just been scooped up by an OG in the consumer product space Procter & Gamble. Tristan Walker’s company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of P&G and he’ll remain at the helm of the business as CEO. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but both of them have a lot to gain by joining forces.

The Breakdown You Need to Know

Procter & Gamble is searching for new ways to innovate and generate interest in its stable of legacy products, especially among black millennial men. Walker & Co will be able to leverage P&G’s extensive marketing resources as it looks to scale its products reach. Half of the company’s revenue comes from a deal Walker struck with Target back in 2015.

“We’ve always had the vision to make health and beauty simple for people of color,” Walker told Fast Company. “But now we get to accelerate that vision with the many capabilities Procter & Gamble has to offer.”

Recode reported that Procter & Gamble paid somewhere between $ 20 million and $ 40 million for the company, based on how much investors had already seeded into the company. CultureBanx noted some investors included Upfront Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz an Queensbridge Venture Partners, which is backed by rapper Nas.

“[When it comes to] direct-to-consumer, we have the capabilities here, but nowhere near the extent [Walker]’s mastered and leveraged,” said Lela Coffey, brand director for multicultural marketing at P&G. “His agility is super-fast. The amount of products he’s been able to bring to market, we need to learn something about that speed.”

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In addition to Bevel, Walker’s Form brand, a 10-product haircare line that launched last year, received rave reviews but he lacked the resources to properly promote the product, according to Fast Company. The publication wrote that now Walker will be able to tap into the $ 2 billion R&D budget to dive deeper into hair innovations for people of color and see them fully realized.

Cultural Consumer Awareness: Walker’s company is following in the footsteps of a couple of other black skincare and haircare businesses that have decided to join forces with major companies. Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price’s sold her company to L’Oréal in 2014. The beauty conglomerate didn’t disclose a price for its acquisition.

In 2017, Rich Dennis’ Sundial Brands which consists of SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, and the recently launched Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture was acquired by Unilever. Employees have doubled to 400 over the past two years, and revenue has more than tripled since 2013, exceeding $ 200 million. Private-equity firm Bain Capital in 2015, valued Sundial at a reported $ 700 million.

Walker & Co. getting acquired by P&G alleviates the issue of scrambling for resources and support as they look to further promote multicultural products. During the first half of 2019, Walker and his lean 15 employee team will move to Atlanta where P&G is headquartered, and a city with a 54% black population. Walker said Atlanta accounts for the largest percentage of his customers by location. They will continue working on their brands Bevel and Form from the so-called “black mecca.”

Forbes – Healthcare

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