Burt's Bees is an American multinational
personal care
Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity, in order to make ...
product company. The company is a subsidiary of
Clorox
The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2024, the Oakland, California-based company had approximately 8,000 employees worldwide. N ...
that describes itself as an "
Earth-friendly, Natural Personal Care Company"
[
]
making products for personal care, health, beauty and personal
hygiene
Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
.
Its products are distributed globally.
[
]
History
1984–1989: Founding
Originating in
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
in the 1980s, the business began when co-founder
Roxanne Quimby started making candles from
Burt Shavitz's leftover
beeswax
Bee hive wax complex
Beeswax (also known as cera alba) is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in o ...
.
The first headquarters was an abandoned one-room schoolhouse rented from a friend for $150 a year.
This eventually led to the bottling and selling of
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
by the two co-founders, and Quimby's focus on maintaining high quality helped to grow the business from an initial $200 at the
Dover-Foxcroft Junior High School craft fair to $20,000 in sales by the end of its first year. The practice of bottling honey slowly diminished as the company evolved as a corporation. The company eventually began selling other products that used honey and beeswax, including furniture polish and edible spreads, before moving more fully into personal care products.
Burt's Bees increased production in 1989, after a New York City boutique, Zona, ordered hundreds of their beeswax candles. Forty additional employees were hired and an abandoned bowling alley became their new manufacturing location. During this time, Quimby read one of Burt Shavitz's 19th-century books about bee-keeping, which included home-made personal care recipes, prompting Burt's Bees to enter into the personal care products industry.
1990s: Incorporation and diversification
Burt's Bees became
incorporated in 1991, and had a product line that included candles, natural
soap
Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
s,
perfume
Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...
s, and, eventually, lip balm, which became their best-selling product.
In 1994, the business moved to North Carolina. Soon after, Quimby forced Shavitz out of the company's operations after learning he was having an affair with an employee. Burt's Bees changed its focus to exclusively personal care products. In 1995, the company moved its manufacturing operations into a former garment factory in
Creedmoor, North Carolina. Although Burt's Bees continued to focus on the "homemade" product theme, automated machines, such as a former cafeteria mixer from
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, were introduced to increase production.
Chapel Hill was the site of the first Burt's Bees retail store, which offered 50 natural personal care products, and distribution had also reached the Japanese market.

In 1998, Burt's Bees was offering over 100 natural personal care products in 4,000 locations with sales in excess of $8 million. Distribution had reached national retailers, such as
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from Hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated fats and artificia ...
, and restaurant chains, such as
Cracker Barrel. New product offerings branched into travel-sized skin care and hair care products.
In 1999, with increasing demand and an increase in product offerings, including sugar and milk-based body lotions and bath products; Burt's Bees relocated to
Durham among the many other enterprises located in the
Research Triangle
The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh an ...
area of North Carolina. An eCommerce website was launched, increasing distribution to a much larger, nationwide scale.
In 1999, Quimby bought out Shavitz's one-third stake in the company, in exchange for a house in Maine, valued at approximately $130,000.
2000–2006: New products and AEA
During 2002 and 2003, Burt's Bees launched its first
toothpaste
Toothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice that is used with a toothbrush to clean and maintain the aesthetics of Human tooth, teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it is an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from th ...
, first
shampoo, and its successful Baby Bee product line of infant personal care products. Co-founder Quimby also used company-earned profits to preserve of forest land in Maine, marking the beginning of a relationship with
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in ...
, an international organization engaged in
environmental protection
Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...
and
conservation.
In 2004, private equity firm
AEA Investors purchased 80% of Burt's Bees for US$173,000,000, with co-founder Quimby retaining a 20% share, and a seat on the company board. Upon seeking compensation from Quimby, after the deal, Shavitz was paid $4 million.
2007–present: Clorox acquisition
As of 2007, the company manufactured over 197 products,
which are distributed globally.
In late 2007,
Clorox
The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2024, the Oakland, California-based company had approximately 8,000 employees worldwide. N ...
acquired Burt's Bees for a reported sum of $925 million USD.
[Farrell, Andrew (October 21, 2007).]
Clorox To Buy Burt's Bees
. ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
''. The company subsequently released a statement to its customers.
["A Letter to Our Loyal Customers"]
at the Burt's Bees official website, archived 17 December 2007.
In February 2011, Burt's Bees CEO (2006–2011) John Replogle left to become CEO and president of
Seventh Generation Inc. In 2011,
Nick Vlahos, a 15-year veteran of
The Clorox Company, was named vice president and general manager of Burt's Bees, effective April 2011.
In 2017, Vlahos left Clorox and was named CEO of
the Honest Company. By February 2014, the Clorox Company had increased "advertising and sales promotion spending for Burt's Bees, particularly for its lip care lines". At the time, "Burt's Bees sales
ereoutpacing volume due to price increases".
Co-founder Shavitz died in July 2015 at the age of 80 and was buried in
Bangor, Maine
Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...
. In his final years, he had lived on plot of land in
Parkman, Maine.
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]
In 2017, Burt's Bees introduced a full cosmetics line, including products such as foundation, mascara, eye shadow, and blush.
As of March 2018, Burt's Bees lip balm had reached such a level of popularity that some reports claimed one tube of the lip balm was purchased every second.
In 2022, Burt's Bees announced a multi-year partnership with rePurpose Global to finance a critical recycling infrastructure that prevents
plastic waste
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...
from flowing into the ocean.
In January 2024, the company announced a partnership with
Hidden Valley Ranch to introduce limited-edition flavors including regular ranch, buffalo sauce, crunchy celery, and fresh carrot. The products came in response to an
April Fool's social media post.
Documentary film
In August 2014, a documentary film, ''Burt's Buzz'', by Jody Shapiro, which details the history between the company co-founders, was released.
See also
*
Beezin', a trend in which people apply Burt’s Bees lip balm to the eyelids
References
External links
*
{{Cosmetics
1984 establishments in Maine
American companies established in 1984
Chemical companies established in 1984
Bee products
Clorox brands
Manufacturing companies based in North Carolina
Companies based in Durham, North Carolina
Manufacturing companies based in Maine
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine
Cosmetics brands
Cosmetics companies of the United States
Personal care brands
American brands
Skin care brands
2007 mergers and acquisitions