Jamie Leventhal has stepped down as CEO of Beacon Wellness Brands, the parent company of Clio, which he started in 2001 and placed sex toys on the shelves of mass-market retailers the likes of Walmart, Target and CVS.
The departure comes almost exactly a year after Clio was acquired by Yellow Wood Partners, a private equity firm that organized its brands such as PlusOne and Deia in a wellness platform called Beacon Wellness Brands. The move isn’t unexpected as, upon the acquisition of Clio, Leventhal told Yellow Wood he would stay on as CEO of the platform until November this year. He’s being succeeded by interim CEO Mark Malo, a business consultant and former VP and GM of The Clorox Company on its Walmart team.
“Since the outset of Yellow Wood’s investment, it was always our and Jamie’s mutual plan for him to transition out of his day-to-day responsibilities by year end and help in the search for a CEO to lead this next chapter of the Beacon Wellness Brands platform,” says Jennifer Roach Pacini, principal at Yellow Wood. “Jamie has made this transition. but remains a member of the board of directors. We are looking forward to Jamie’s continued involvement as a member of the board and in the company’s next stage of growth.”
Along with Beacon Wellness Brands, Yellow Wood’s portfolio includes foot care brands Dr. Scholl’s and Scholl, beauty brands Real Techniques and EcoTools, self-tanning specialists Isle of Paradise, Tanologist and TanLuxe, and skincare companies Freeman Beauty and Byoma. In addition to its robust sex device business, Beacon Wellness Brands also contains a personal care division and manufactures facial skincare, grooming products and tools sold under the Plum Beauty, Mowbie and Clio brands.
When Leventhal started Clio, it had limited retail distribution opportunities in mass-market and adult novelty channels. Over two decades, Leventhal was able to bootstrap the company to more than $100 million in sales. It sold over 10 million sex toys last year alone, earning its keystone device brand, PlusOne, the title of No. 1 sexual device brand at mass-market retail in the United States, according to syndicated data from Nielsen and IRI. Clio products are sold in 20,000-plus retail locations nationwide.
“Now it’s time for a new CEO to take the company from $100 million to $500 million and to a whole new level altogether,” says Leventhal. “The company is in good hands with the new ownership team at Yellow Wood Capital Partners and with my wonderful colleagues, 100% of whom have stayed on post-acquisition.”
Leventhal, who shares he will remain “peripherally involved” with Beacon Wellness Brands, is launching consulting firm CatalystSMC, where he’ll advise consumer goods startups that don’t compete with Beacon Wellness Brands’ properties on product, strategy, positioning marketing on sales. It will be focused on brands that do business with Walmart and other major retailers.
Leventhal says, “The business is new, something that I recently started, and will remain focused only on opportunities where I can provide meaningful support.”
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