The Clorox Company Should Divest its Billion-Dollar Supplements Brand Portfolio

It’s “spring cleaning time” at The Clorox Company…and unfortunately throwing away about a billion dollars’ worth of supplement brand acquisitions might make sense! My guess is A LOT of you didn’t even know that The Clorox Company owned a collection of supplement brands…let alone ones that in aggregate cost the CPG company just under a billion dollars to acquire. Why would a CPG portfolio that was built around an iconic bleach cleaning product be interested in supplement brands? Well…The Clorox Company believes it has been a health and wellness company for over 100 years. In May 2016, The Clorox Company announced it acquired the digestive health supplement brand Renew Life for $290 million. Less than two years later, Clorox acquired Nutranext for $700 million. That portfolio name probably doesn’t ring a bell to many, but it included the multivitamin brand Rainbow Light, anti-stress and sleep brand Natural Vitality, early collagen nutricosmetics brand Neocell, a small vitamin and mineral supplement brand called Stop Aging Now, and they also owned the legacy sports nutrition brand Champion Performance. Beyond the margin accretive potential from cost synergies with its previous acquisition of Renew Life, The Clorox Company was staring at a bigger challenge….one that Nutranext could help solve. Nutranext’s portfolio of consumer brands had strong digital sales, including through the brands’ DTC websites. To put it plain and simple, Nutranext might have been strategically aligned with The Clorox Company’s “health and wellness” identity, but its intent in 2018 was focused on making a $700 million acquihire bet on the future of retail. Did that very expensive strategy work out like The Clorox Company had hoped? I'll explain the complicated nature of answering that, but more importantly explain if headline news that The Clorox Company is looking to divest its supplement brands is “pure rumor and speculation” or what I call high probability. In my opinion, it’s time for Clorox to unwind this ingestible “health and wellness” nonsense and embrace that they’re a cleaning and disinfecting solutions business. FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS LINKEDIN - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaschallmba⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TWITTER - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ INSTAGRAM - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/joshua_schall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FACEBOOK - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/jschallconsulting