Not Your Mother’s Heads to Henkel

Main Post Partners has agreed to sell DeMert Brands, the parent company of haircare brand Not Your Mother’s, to Henkel.

Not Your Mother’s (NYM) was founded in 2010 by Rocky Pagliarulo and Bethany Pagliarulo to provide salon-style haircare products that provide curl definition, texture, and volume at drugstore price points.

NYM’s product portfolio includes the Curl Talk line, which includes Curl Defining Cream and Sculpting Gel used by consumers seeking structured curl patterns; the Beach Babe range, including Texturizing Sea Salt Spray designed to create a tousled texture; and the Plump For Joy shampoo and conditioner set formulated to increase the appearance of hair volume. NYM sells primarily through mass retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Ulta Beauty.

Tampa-headquartered NYM operates under DeMert Brands, which manages the distribution and development of the NYM product portfolio.

Main Post invested in the company in 2019 as the company’s first institutional investor. “Since partnering in 2019, we are proud of what we’ve accomplished,” said Sean Honey, managing partner at Main Post. “The brand has built strong momentum by staying focused on product performance and innovation and deepening its longstanding retail partnerships.”

“We are very pleased with the growth of NYM and are grateful to all the many people, past and present, who contributed to its success, including the contributions of the team at Main Post,” said Rocky and Bethany Pagliarulo in a released statement. “We also wish Henkel every continued success with the NYM Brand.”

Henkel (FSE: HEN) is a Germany-headquartered multinational company with operations in the adhesives, beauty care, laundry, and home care sectors. Henkel’s portfolio of consumer and industrial brands includes Schwarzkopf hair care, Dial soaps, Right Guard antiperspirants, Persil, Purex and All laundry detergents, Snuggle fabric softeners, and Loctite, Technomelt and Bonderite adhesives.

Over the past decade, Henkel has expanded its beauty portfolio largely through acquisitions in professional haircare. In 2014, Henkel acquired professional hair brands Sexy Hair, Alterna, and Kenra Professional from TSG Consumer Partners, adding to its North American professional hair portfolio. In 2017, Henkel acquired Nattura Laboratorios, owner of Pravana, from its founders. The company later acquired DevaCurl from Ares Management in 2019 and the Shiseido Professional business in Asia-Pacific from Shiseido Company Limited in 2022. Henkel’s buy of NYM continues its strategy of building a portfolio of haircare brands sold through both the salon and mass retail channels.

Henkel is led by CEO Carsten Knobel and operates globally with offices and production facilities across Europe, North America, and Asia.

“We are grateful to Rocky, Bethany and the NYM team for their partnership,” added Matt Short, partner at Main Post. “Together, we have built an exceptional brand and look forward to seeing NYM continue to flourish in its next chapter with Henkel.”

Main Post makes both control and non-control investments in consumer, business services, and industrial companies with revenues of $50 million to $500 million and EBITDA of $5 million to $50 million. The San Francisco-headquartered firm was founded in April 2014 by managing partners Jeffrey Mills and Mr. Honey, both former partners at private equity firm Weston Presidio.

“The NYM team has done an excellent job scaling the business while maintaining the brand’s mission and focus on consumers,” said Josh McDowell, partner at Main Post Partners.

The NYM’s transaction adds to Main Post Partners’ record of investments in the beauty and wellness sector. The firm previously exited Milk Makeup, which was acquired by Waldencast in 2022; HydraFacial, which was acquired by BeautyHealth Company in 2021; Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, which was acquired by Shiseido in 2019; and Too Faced Cosmetics, which was sold to Estée Lauder in 2016.

Raymond James was the financial advisor to NYM on the transaction.