Unilever

“Raymond and I kept a small percentage of the company and we're still involved.”

“There was going to continue to be an independent board in the new entity that oversaw the social mission, and I think Ben and I could have Remained on that board, and we both chose not to.”

“You know, if Unilever bought a brand and bought the goodwill that goes along with that brand and bought the reputation that goes along with that brand, they need to continue those activities in order to keep that brand strong.”

“Well, it was a public company which meant that anybody could own shares, and Unilever ended up offering so much money that the board of the company couldn't find an alternative for the shareholders that that they thought was acceptable.”

“The reason I was successful at Tom's of Maine is because I took market share away from Colgate, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. So when you can take market share away from the commodities by an alternative approach to that product development and that product …”

“Something like, you know, 80% of our, you know, three hundred-ish employees are new within the last 18 months.”

“There was going to continue to be an independent board in the new entity that oversaw the social mission, and I think Ben and I could have remained on that board, and we both chose not to.”

“Well, it was a public company which meant that anybody could own shares, and Unilever ended up offering so much money that the board of the company couldn't find an alternative for the shareholders that they thought was acceptable.”

“If we were independent, I think there's a very good chance we'd be shutting down the company right now.”

“While scaling will happen, it's not, oh, you acquire, you get acquired and like, poof, you're an overnight sensation. Like it's not, it doesn't work that quickly.”

“The way that they work is that they really are adamant about keeping the brand separate, but obviously joined, but separate in the sense where we're still have our same office. We still have all the same employees and Our DNA looks and feels the same. We have …”

“And it turned out when they sold to Unilever, they created two small venture fund, two, five million dollar funds, one run by Pierre Ferrari called hot fudge and one run by Chuck Lacey called Bardrock. And so they were both our first bigger investor, bigger me…”

“But then the truth is, we weren't profitable, and so when you're not profitable, you have an end date to your cash, and you can either keep raising money, you can find a way to make your business profitable, or you can sell it.”

“The reality of any deal is there is a big difference between your deal champions who acquire your business and the on the ground people who you have to work with day to day.”

“One huge mistake that we, that I made Is post acquisition, we wrongfully and maybe naively painted a picture of there won't be change or the change will only be good, right? They're going to grow our sales and everything else will stay the same. And so we, in …”

“Our board would have told us not to take the meeting.”

“We went from having a retail sales team of four people to Unilever's sales team of 400 people spread across these 50 states, and so together with the team and with Unilever's fantastic team, the size of Sir Kensington's tripled.”

“And then hair companies started coming after me and L'Oreal wanted me to work with them with their Garnier line and Bumble and Bumble were there. And then all of a sudden a lot of companies, Unilever I worked with. To help out with their product line in Latin …”

“Unilever actually came to us. They came to us in 13, they said this is the call you've been waiting for, and said, we want to buy your business, and we're like, well, it's not for sale. We're not selling. And that started this, at least a year, I think it was …”

“And so by the end of 16, we had hit two hundred and forty five million in sales, and it was extremely profitable, and they got what they paid for.”

“Selling this to, like, XYZ private equity firm doesn't tick it for me, and I have no interest in that. This needs to go to the right home at some point, and that needs to be one of the largest companies in the world in the CPG space. That needs to be a Procter…”

“You stayed on as CEO until twenty-ten and by 2016, seventh generation was acquired by Unilever for about Six to seven hundred million dollars.”