Burt's Bees

Burt's Bees

Type	Part of Clorox^[1]
Industry	Consumer products
Founded	1984^[2]
Founder(s)	Roxanne Quimby Burt Shavitz^[1]
Headquarters	Durham, North Carolina, U.S.^[3]
Area served	US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan^[1]
Key people	Nick Vlahos (Vice President, General Manager)^[4]
Products	Natural personal care products
Employees	420 (2005)^[5]
Website	www.burtsbees.com

Burt's Bees is an American personal care products company that describes itself as an "Earth friendly, Natural Personal Care Company"^[6] making products for personal care, health, beauty, and personal hygiene. As of 2007, they manufactured over 197 products for facial and body skin care, lip care, hair care, baby care, men's grooming, and outdoor remedies^[1] distributed in nearly 30,000 retail outlets including grocery stores and drug store chains across the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan from their headquarters in Durham, North Carolina.^[1]^[7]

Burt's Bees manufactures their products with natural ingredients^[8] using minimal processing such as distillation/condensation, extraction/steamed distillation/pressure cooking and hydrolysis to maintain the purity of those ingredients.^[9] In addition, every product has a "natural bar" which gives a percentage of natural ingredients in that product, often with detailed ingredient descriptions.^[10]

Burt's Bees operates under a business model referred to as "The Greater Good," which outlines that all company practices must be socially responsible. To reflect this philosophy, Burt's Bees uses all natural ingredients,^[11] engages in environmentally friendly business practices,^[12] and extends its humanitarian efforts to the community at large.^[13]

Originating in Maine in the 1980s, the business began when co-founder Roxanne Quimby started making candles from Burt Shavitz's leftover beeswax.^[14] Their attention to quality brought success and eventually led to the bottling and selling of honey, a practice that slowly diminished as the company evolved as a corporation.^{[citation needed]} Eventually, other products using honey and beeswax, including edible spreads and furniture polish, were sold, before moving into the personal care line.^{[citation needed]}

In late 2007, the Clorox Company purchased Burt's Bees.^[15]

Timeline

1984-1989

1984: Burt's Bees originated in Maine as a candle making partnership between Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz in 1984. Shavitz had a honey business which provided the excess beeswax needed for the candles and Quimby's focus on maintaining high quality helped to grow their business from an initial $200 at the Dover-Foxcroft Junior High School craft fair to $20,000 by the end of their first year. Their first headquarters was an abandoned one-room schoolhouse rented out from a friend for $150 a year.^[16]

1989: Burt's Bees increased production after a New York boutique, Zona, ordered hundreds of their beeswax candles. Forty additional employees were hired and an abandoned bowling alley became their new manufacturing location. During this time, Quimby found a 19th century book of home-made personal care recipes and Burt's Bees entered into the personal care products industry.^[16]

1991: Burt's Bees became incorporated and had a product offering including candles, natural soaps, perfumes, and eventually lip balm, which became their best-selling product.^[1]

1993: Quimby bought out Shavitz's shares in the company. Increasing demand and product offerings necessitated a move from Maine headquarters to North Carolina where other personal care product manufacturers were also situated. Burt's Bees changed its focus to exclusively personal care products.^[1]

1994: The new manufacturing location was in an 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m²) former garment factory in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Automated machines, such as a former cafeteria mixer from Duke University, were introduced to increase production, although Burt's Bees continued to focus on the "home-made" product theme. Chapel Hill was the site of the first Burt's Bees retail store which offered 50 natural personal care products. Distribution and demand of products had also reached the Japanese market.^[1]

1998: Burt's Bees was offering over 100 natural personal care products in 4,000 locations with sales in excess of $8 million dollars. Distribution had reached higher-end national retailers such as Whole Foods Market and Cracker Barrel. New product offerings branched into travel-sized skin care and hair care products.^[1]

1999

Again, with increasing demand and an increase product offering including sugar and milk-based body lotions and bath products, Burt's Bees relocated to Durham amongst many other high-tech companies and enterprises in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. An eCommerce website was launched allowing distribution in a much larger, nationwide scale.^[1]

2002–2003

Burt's Bees launched its first toothpaste, first shampoo, and successful Baby Bee product line of infant personal care products. The founder, Roxanne Quimby, also used company-earned profits to preserve 185,000 acres (750 km²) of forest land in Maine, marking the beginning of a relationship with The Nature Conservancy, an international organization engaged in environmental protection and conservation.^[1]

2004

Private equity firm, AEA Investors, purchased 80% of Burt's Bees for $173,000,000 USD, with co-founder, Roxanne Quimby, retaining a 20% share and a seat on the board.^[17]

2005

Douglas Haensel, a former GE executive with CFO experience also at The Athlete's Foot Group and 21st Century Newspapers, Inc. joined Burt's Bees in May as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Michael Indursky, a former Garnier and Unilever executive joined Burt's Bees in July to head Burt's Bees marketing and public relations group.^[18]

2006

John Replogle, a former general manager of Unilever's skin care division, became the Chief Executive Officer and President, effective from January 19, 2006. Prior to joining Unilever, Replogle served as President of Guinness Bass Import Company, Managing Director of Guinness Great Britain and had several roles in Marketing, Sales and Strategy with Diageo.^[19]. Replogle left to become CEO and President of Seventh Generation Inc. in February 2011.^[20]

2007

Burt's Bees currently offers over 150 natural personal care products in 30,000 retail locations and sales in excess of $250 million (2006)^[1] with satellite offices across the United States, UK, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.^[1]

In late 2007, the Clorox Company acquired Burt's Bees for the reported sum of $925,000,000 USD.^[15] The company subsequently released a statement to their customers.^[21]

2011

Nick Vlahos, a 15-year veteran of The Clorox Company was named Vice President and General Manager of Burt's Bees, effective April 2011. Vlahos is an Indiana University graduate who joined Clorox in 1995 as a sales manager. He previously was vice president of the company's Laundry, Brita and Green Works brands.^[4]