AURORA, Ill.—Freudenberg Household Products is acquiring the Playtex household gloves business, subject to closing conditions.
Playtex, the gloves business of Edgewell Personal Care, is one of the leading brands in the U.S. and has been on the market for more than 65 years according to Freudenberg.
Financial details were not disclosed. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter and only consists of the inventory, brand and the gloves; no employees or facilities will be affected.
"We will continue to invest in our innovative products," said Tim Molek, president of the Americas for Freudenberg Household Products. "We will continue to drive market share in existing and new categories in floor care. We will also continue to look for other partnership and acquisition opportunities."
Freudenberg said Playtex occupies about 8.5 percent of the total U.S. glove market—which also includes work and medical gloves in addition to the household segment.
Molek said the acquisition will give Freudenberg a gloves presence in the U.S. for the first time, which will complement its already impressive global market share. According to the firm, it holds the No. 1 global glove brand in Vileda.
While the Playtex brand is primarily focused in the U.S., it does have a presence in Central America and Puerto Rico. Freudenberg doesn't plan to market the brand overseas, but could find some technological opportunities.
"The technology that Playtex owns in gloves is something we can learn from. In addition we will take the learnings of our global glove business and bring it to the U.S. market under the Playtex brand. We do not plan to use the Playtex name beyond its current markets as we are the No. 1 brand globally in gloves with Vileda."
Playtex gloves primarily are made from latex and are manufactured by a third party in Malaysia. Molek said there are no immediate plans to in-source the manufacturing process.
Leesa Smith, Freudenberg Household Products chief financial officer, added that the quality of Playtex's products was a major differentiating factor.
"Many of the household gloves you'll find in the market right now don't have the same quality level as Playtex," Smith said. "There are quite a lot of private label brands and for us Playtex, with their Living and Handsaver gloves, the quality was much more in line with the quality that we sell with our other brand elsewhere in the world."
Freudenberg Household Products is part of Freudenberg Group's Home and Cleaning Solutions unit, which is a global supplier of branded cleaning systems as well as household and laundry care products. The firm's portfolio includes brands like Vileda, O-Cedar, Gimi, Gala and Wettex among others. The unit generated about $1 billion in global sales with about 3,000 employees and a distribution network in more than 35 countries.