Dollar Shave Acquires Truly Beauty   

Dollar Shave Club (DSC) is acquiring women’s personal care brand Truly Beauty. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by DSC officials, who said each brand will retain its distinct identity, voice and core audience.

A Gen Z-focused brand known for its “unapologetic social media marketing,” Truly Beauty shares the same “challenger spirit that made Dollar Shave Club a household name,” according to executives at DSC.

DSC made became a household name as a start-up that entered the men’s grooming category in 2011. Its direct-to-consumer model began to siphon share from razor category leaders like Procter & Gamble/Gillette and others. In 2016 it was acquired by Unilever.

In 2023, Unilever sold DSC to private equity firm Capital Management LP, but retained a 35% stake in the grooming company.

Foray Into Women’s Personal Care

Today’s acquisition follows Dollar Shave Club’s successful test run in women’s personal care. In April, the company unveiled a curated collection of products under the DSC Women banner, as reported by Happi.

“When we launched our DSC Women’s Line earlier this year, it sold out in the first month and blew past our internal forecasts for subscriber growth,” said CEO Larry Bodner, who joined DSC in November 2023 from Bulletproof. “Serving female consumers is not a wild guess for us because we already proved they want our products. Acquiring Truly allows us to build directly on that validated momentum, expanding far beyond razors into a full personal care platform across multiple price tiers and retail partners.”  

According to Bodner, DSC will apply the same marketing engine and operating infrastructure to a new consumer, a new category and a new price tier.

DSC officials say the brands serve two “structurally different shoppers.”

Truly Beauty is more experiential and targets the mass-premium shopper.  Dollar Shave Club will be sticking to its “irreverent, no-BS, and unapologetically value-driven promise of self-care without the luxury tax or the ten-step routine,” according to the team at DSC.

According to Bodner, by layering Truly’s “fast-turn product engine onto our AI-driven inventory planning and backend logistics, we are building a high-velocity innovation model that legacy CPG conglomerates simply cannot replicate.”

Integration of back-end supply chain and inventory platforms will begin immediately, according to officials.

“This acquisition is about unlocking Truly’s growth potential,” Bodner added. “On the front end, Truly keeps its own distinct voice, packaging, and loyal audience completely intact. On the back end, we are plugging their brand into our infrastructure, supply chain, inventory planning, and retail relationships to help them scale efficiently. It is a two-way exchange where their team brings high-velocity innovation to our platform, and we supply the operational backbone to accelerate their next phase of growth.”  

In a press statement, Truly Beauty’s Maxx Appelman and Freddy Wolfe, founder and CEO, respectively, said they were “immensely proud of Truly’s growth since launching in 2015, having built a loyal Gen Z community by bringing prestige-quality formulas, packaging, and positioning to the mass-premium market.”

According to DSC, the transaction expands its footprint in major retail doors, including Ulta, Walmart, Target CVS, TJX, and Boots UK, “establishing a formidable multi-category, dual-gender supplier profile for CPG retail partners.”