The FTSE-100 consumer goods giant Unilever is closing in on a £230m deal to snap up Wild, a premium producer of refillable personal care products backed by the founders of Innocent Drinks.
Sky News has learnt that Unilever has agreed the terms of a transaction to acquire Wild from its founders and early-stage investors.
A deal could be announced within weeks, according to industry sources.
If confirmed, it would be one of Unilever’s most significant acquisitions in the personal care space for some years, and comes as chief executive Hein Schumacher accelerates efforts to revamp its portfolio.
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The group owns personal care brands such as Dove and Lynx – which is known as Axe in most countries around the world.
Unilever is said to have been drawn to the Wild business because of both its premium brand positioning and its commitment to sustainability.
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Wild, which was founded by Charlie Bowes-Lyon and Freddy Ward, sells refillable natural deodorants, lip balms, bodywashes and handwashes direct to consumers.
The sale price of up to £230m is understood to include a sizeable earnout for the founders, but even without that, the deal represents a remarkable triumph for a business founded just six years ago.
Mr Ward told The Grocer, a trade magazine, in 2023 that Wild’s initial efforts to produce a credible product were unsuccessful.
“We learned that we weren’t very good at making deodorant but there was demand for the product if we could get it right,” he said.
“It just didn’t really work, was the problem.
“The formulation wasn’t very good.”
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A revamp of the product, which coincided with the remote shopping explosion triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, paid dividends for the founders.
Since then, they have reportedly raised in the region of £10m from external investors including Jamjar Ventures, the investment vehicle of Innocent Drinks’ founders, Redbus Ventures and Slingshot Ventures.
Its accounts for the year to 31 December 2023 show that sales reached close to £47m, a 77% increase on the year before.
It recorded an operating profit of £560,000.
“2023 represented a watershed moment in Wild’s short history as we delivered our first year of profitable growth across the business,” the accounts – signed off last July – said.
A sale to Unilever comes as the London-listed group contemplates a listing of its vast ice cream division, which includes the Ben & Jerry’s brand.
The company is being lobbied to demerge in a deal involving the London Stock Exchange, although exchanges in Amsterdam and New York are also under consideration.
On Monday afternoon, shares in Unilever were trading at around £47.26, giving it a market capitalisation of close to £116bn.
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Unilever declined to comment, while Wild Cosmetics had no means of being immediately reached for comment.
