Sojourner Consumer Partners has formed Lornamead as a new platform and carved out certain assets and personal care brands of Lornamead North America from Lornamead, Inc. and Lornamead Group Limited, subsidiaries of Meiyume, which is owned by Hong Kong-based LH Pegasus.
Lornamead owns a portfolio of personal care brands, including Yardley London (bath and body), Finesse (hair care), Aqua Net (hair styling), and Lypsyl (lip balm), and is one of the larger providers of private label toothpaste and oral pain relief gels and liquids in the United States.
The company’s products are sold to mass-market consumers through major North American retailers. New York City-headquartered Lornamead, led by President Randy Sloan, operates an FDA-registered oral care manufacturing and distribution facility located near Buffalo in Tonawanda, New York.
Lornamead Group Limited was founded in 1978 as a personal care brand operating in the UK and Germany and expanded into the United States with the formation of Lornamead, Inc. in 2002. The company was acquired by Hong Kong-based Li & Fung in December 2012. In 2018, Li & Fung sold three product verticals—beauty, furniture, and sweaters—for US $1.1 billion to LH Pegasus, a joint venture between Hong Kong-based Fung Group (55%) and Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital (45%). As part of the transaction, the beauty business was established as Meiyume, which included the assets and brands of Lornamead-related businesses.
Today, LH Pegasus is strategically focusing Meiyume as a full-service contract manufacturer in the beauty and personal care sector with end-to-end capabilities—from concept and packaging design through engineering, formulation, manufacturing, filling, and data analytics. Today’s sale of the Lornamead brands and assets to Sojourner demonstrates this strategy and follows the December 2021 sale by Meiyume of Lornamead Germany and certain UK brands (Brisk, Rapid White, Triple Dry) to Sodalis, a privately held Italian consumer products company specializing in personal care, beauty, and home care brands across Europe.
“The carve-out from Meiyume marks a significant milestone for Lornamead, and I want to personally thank all of our talented and committed employees while welcoming our new partner,” said Mr. Sloan. “We are excited to leverage Sojourner’s industry and digital commerce expertise, and we are well-positioned as an organization to embark on this new chapter and drive growth across our portfolio.”
As part of the acquisition of Lornamead, Sojourner has named Emily Fong Mitchell as the company’s new vice chairperson. Ms. Mitchell has more than two decades of senior management experience at Colgate-Palmolive, including leading the company’s North America personal care operations from 2020 to 2022. In 2022, she joined Ball Corporation’s aluminum cups division as its president and general manager.
“We are excited to complete this acquisition and welcome Lornamead into the Sojourner family,” said Rob DesMarais, a senior partner of Sojourner. “This acquisition aligns with our strategy of investing in established consumer brands that will benefit from dedicated resources and strategic guidance. We look forward to supporting their transition to an independent company and unlocking its full potential.”
Sojourner specializes in acquiring and revitalizing consumer-branded companies through a blend of operating and investment strategies. The firm was founded in January 2023 by Rob DesMarais, a former managing director and partner at Swander Pace; Zach Johnson, a former executive at Amazon; and Roger Dickhout, a veteran investor and operator of food and consumer goods companies and the past CEO of several Swander Pace portfolio companies. Sojourner is headquartered near New York City in Short Hills, New Jersey, with an additional office in Toronto.
© 2025 Private Equity Professional | June 12, 2025
