Another Sell Out: Burt’s Bees

It’s true.  Burt’s Bees has sold out.   In a $925 million deal, Clorox has agreed to purchase Burt’s.  The deal is expected to close by the end of this year.  Capitalism at its best, I guess.  Do I want to support a company like Clorox?  The bleach company.  The company that tells me to spray chemicals all over my house where my children are.  I don’t know that I do. 

It will be interesting to see how the Burt’s Bees brand changes now that Clorox is taking over.  Burt’s is pretty wide-spread now - but now we’ll probably start seeing commercials and ads everywhere.  Will the ingredients start to change slowly and be substituted with cheaper alternatives?  It wouldn’t be the first time that a huge company purchased a smaller, honest company and changed it for the worse. 

I used to buy Back To Nature products regularly.  They had the best granola on the market for the price point they were offering.  It was sweetened with pineapple juice.  Kraft Foods purchased Back To Nature and the ingredients changed.  The package looked hipper, but it was smaller for the same price.

Organic Monitor director Amarjit Sahota told CosmeticsDesign.com, “We believe Burt’s Bees could become damaged by the acquisition because of its impact on customer and retailer perceptions of the brand.”

Everytime a great small company builds a following, they seem to sell out.  I’m waiting for the day that I wake up and Patagonia has sold out to Nike.