Yellow Wood Adds to Freeman Beauty
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Yellow Wood Adds to Freeman Beauty

Freeman Beauty, a portfolio company of Yellow Wood Partners, has agreed to acquire Paris Presents, a provider of branded cosmetic and bath accessories and a portfolio company of EagleTree Capital.

Paris Presents creates and distributes beauty products and personal care accessories to mass merchants, drug stores, specialty beauty stores, and online retailers. The company’s product portfolio includes Real Techniques, cosmetic sponges; EcoTools, cosmetics and bath accessories; and Body Benefits, bath accessories. Paris Presents, led by CEO Patrick O’Brien, was founded in 1947 and is headquartered north of Chicago in Gurnee, IL (www.parispresents.com).

“For over 70 years Paris Presents has been utilizing consumer insights, innovative product development, and supply chain expertise to develop winning consumer-focused products,” said Mr. O’Brien. “While we have enjoyed considerable growth and success over the past years with EagleTree, partnering with Yellow Wood provides us with access to additional resources and an increased level of industry and operating expertise to build on our success and accelerate our business priorities as an innovative market leader.”

New York-based EagleTree (www.eagletree.com), formerly Wasserstein Partners, acquired Paris Presents in December 2014 from Mason Wells. “We and our co-investors have been delighted to work with Patrick O’Brien and the entire Paris Presents management team over the last several years,” said George Majoros, Co-Managing Partner of EagleTree. “We’re very pleased with the strong growth the company has achieved under our ownership, and are confident Paris will continue its strong international and domestic growth under Yellow Wood’s leadership.”

Yellow Wood acquired Freeman Beauty, a specialty beauty company with a portfolio of brands across the skin care, hair care, foot care and specialty bath and body categories, from Champlain Capital in August 2017. Freeman Beauty’s brand names include Feeling Beautiful (facial masks), Beauty Infusion (facial masks), Feeling Legendary (facial masks for men), Bare Foot (foot care), Psssst! (dry shampoo), and c.Booth (bath and body care). Freeman’s products are sold through the food, mass, drug and specialty retail channels. The company, led by CEO Bill George, was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Los Angeles (www.freemanbeauty.com).

“This transformational acquisition creates an industry leading beauty platform focused in two of the fastest growing segments in the personal care and beauty segments,” said Dana Schmaltz, Founding Partner of Yellow Wood. “Paris Presents’ superior quality branded beauty accessory products dovetail well with Freeman Beauty’s industry-leading face masks as both companies share the same millennial, Gen Z, and multicultural consumers.  The combined organization will enhance the strong partnerships that both Paris Presents and Freeman have with their retail and e-commerce partners leading to future growth.”

Yellow Wood invests in consumer brands and companies that operate in the mass, drug, food, specialty, value, club and e-commerce channels and have revenues between $30 million and $200 million. In July 2017, the firm completed fundraising for Yellow Wood Capital Partners II LP at an oversubscribed $370 million of committed capital. Yellow Wood was founded in 2011 and is based in Boston (www.yellowwoodpartners.com).

This transaction is expected to close before the end of September 2018.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | August 28, 2018

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