Unilever Buys Dollar Shave Club

Unilever has signed an agreement to purchase Dollar Shave Club, which may shake up its competition.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Venice, California, Dollar Shave Club (DSC) has grown into a full male grooming business with 3.2 million members. In 2015, DSC had turnover of $152 million and is on track to exceed $200 million in turnover in 2016. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter.

Dollar Shave Club brings to Unilever’s personal care category a male grooming perspective and a brand range that extends far beyond shaving to include Wanderer men’s personal wash products, Big Cloud men’s skin care products, Boogies hair styling products, and One Wipe Charlies daily wipes.

“Dollar Shave Club is an innovative and disruptive male grooming brand with incredibly deep connections to its diverse and highly engaged consumers,” said Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America. “In addition to its unique consumer and data insights, Dollar Shave Club is the category leader in its direct-to-consumer space. We plan to leverage the global strength of Unilever to support Dollar Shave Club in achieving its full potential in terms of offering and reach.”

According to The Motley Fool, Unilever has a lot of what Procter & Gamble wants. Despite the weak selling environment that they both operate in, Unilever's revenue is growing at a decent clip and it is gaining market share across all its main product categories. 

"Even though its operating results are weaker, Procter & Gamble aims to deliver significantly more cash to shareholders over the next few years," writes Demitrios Kalogeropoulos. "Like Unilever, the company is raising funds through cost cuts. However, P&G has taken that strategy a big step further by selling off a substantial portion of its portfolio. The company has whittled its products down to 65 key brands from 165 two years ago."

Michael Dubin, founder of Dollar Shave Club, will continue to serve as CEO.
"[We] couldn’t be happier to have the world’s most innovative and progressive consumer-product company in our corner," said Dubin. "We have long admired Unilever’s purpose-driven business leadership and its category expertise is unmatched. We are excited to be part of the family."
 
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although media reports pegged the transaction price at $1 billion.