caldrea042908
On the homepage
Local
Out There
Business
Vita.mn
Mr. Muscle marrying Mrs. Meyer
Fragrant cleaning products maker Caldrea is being acquired by giant SC Johnson. The deal should add to Caldrea's sales.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
Related Content
Monica Nassif and her Mother Thelma Meyer
More from Business
Mr. Muscle, meet Mrs. Meyer.
Consumer products giant SC Johnson has acquired Minneapolis-based Caldrea Co. for an undisclosed amount.
The deal combines well-known household products such as Mr. Muscle kitchen cleaner and Off! insect repellent with Caldrea and Mrs. Meyer's, two specialty brands that cater to environmentally conscious consumers.
In an interview Monday, Caldrea founder and chief executive Monica Nassif said SC Johnson, based in Racine, Wis., will help her company expand distribution.
"We are growing so quickly," said Nassif, who will continue to run Caldrea. "When you find a partner [like SC Johnson] that can help you scale, it's exciting for everyone."
The privately held company, which did not disclose sales figures, employs 50 people.
Founded in 1999, Caldrea specializes in high-end, nontoxic cleaning products such as dish liquid soap and wood furniture cream that contain "unified" scents including "Watercress Wild Lilly" and "Citrus Mint Yiang and Yiang." In other words, all the products in a fragrance category smell the same.
Caldrea-branded products are sold in 2,500 stores across the United States via speciality retailers such as Bachman's and Kowalski's Markets. Mrs. Meyer's, the company's more mass-market brand, can be found in Target and Festival Foods. The company also makes a private label line for Williams-Sonoma.
Nassif, a former nurse who moved to Minneapolis in 1981, was a marketing executive working for a variety of blue-chip clients when she found herself standing in a store in Atlanta staring at the soaps and cleansers and thinking, "I hate cleaning products."
Nassif has said she wanted to make cleaning products be more like cosmetics. In other words, when you put your hands into a cleaning product, why should that be different from putting your hands in shampoo?
Caldrea is named after Nassif's two daughters, Calla and Aundrea. Mrs. Meyer's owes its name to Nassif's mother, Thelma Meyer.
Kelly Semrau, a spokesperson for SC Johnson, said the company wanted to move beyond mass-market brands such as Windex and Pledge and to target higher-end customers.
Caldrea "is an exciting company," Semrau said. "They are on trend with a consumer we don't normally reach."
Thomas Lee • 612-673-7744
- Twin Cities advisers accused of fraud, mismanagement
- Mall, teen store sales decline
- Parents have bad-guy ally to turn off video games
- A gentler option arrives for repaying student loans
- Supervalu CEO clears space on executive shelf
- Smith & Hawken to close its doors in Edina
- For modest earners, relief repaying student loans
Blog: Patent Pending
Bits of other stuff
AbbeyMoor Medical of Parkers Prairie has received pre-market approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell “The Spanner,” a stent that treats men suffering from urinary problems because of a blocked prostate. Catchy name for a stent. Very vivid imagery. TST Media, a Minneapolis-based software company that specializes in Websites for amateur sport teams, said it [...]
Comment on this story | Be the first to comment | Hide reader comments