The consumer goods industry, once dominated by billion-dollar conglomerates, is in the midst of a dramatic evolution with the emergence of new, smaller, digitally-native brands. These brands are discovered and purchased online — not curated by brick and mortar retailers — providing consumers an unprecedented opportunity to discover a variety of new products that they feel great about bringing into their homes. Having founded, led, and partnered with small, but fast-growing companies like these, we know how exhilarating and challenging it can be to scale to new heights.
While many emerging ecommerce companies have amazing products and a small but passionate customer base, they often lack the expertise or resources needed to get their products into the hands of a broader consumer base. With our extensive experience and passion for brand building, we knew there was an opportunity to help.
We founded Cincy Brands to be an innovative, agile, and modern-day consumer products company. Our mission is to get emerging, high-quality products into the hands of every potential customer, so they can live healthier, happier lives. We do this by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating better-for-you brands that share consumers' values on ingredients, the environment, and how employees should be treated.
Our operating philosophy has been honed with over 40 years of combined experience as we’ve scaled iconic brands like Old Spice, Crest, IAMS, and Vick’s, launched new hundred-million-dollar brands like Zevo, and built an Amazon agency to over $150M in revenue under management. Utilizing this experience, we will combine the discipline and capabilities that drive big brand growth like scaled platforms, technology, operations, and marketing with what is vital for small brands like speed, innovation, and values that resonate with consumers. Our people are at the core of this strategy; we hire smart, driven, passionate individuals and empower them to grow a dynamic portfolio of brands.
Cincy Brands is targeting brands with $1M to $10M in annual revenue in the beauty care, baby care, health care, pet care, and home care spaces. They will have demonstrated traction in at least two of three channels: brick and mortar, direct-to-consumer, or marketplaces. Our proprietary platform and technology will help us accelerate growth in all three channels through brand management, performance marketing, sales, product development, and supply chain expertise.
Our acquisition process is a people-first approach rooted in integrity, transparency, and aligned with the brand’s interests. We commit to providing a quick and seamless exit for founders with a variety of flexible terms. We are excited to work with founders and scale their vision to new heights.
We are also pleased to announce that Wilbur Labs, a San Francisco-based startup studio, is backing Cincy Brands. We’ve long admired how Wilbur Labs’ portfolio companies make a positive impact on consumers' lives by helping hundreds of millions of people travel the world, find a job, order everyday essentials, find insurance, and care for their pets. With their backing, we can ensure owners are fairly compensated while injecting the capital and expertise needed to rapidly scale. We couldn’t have found a better investor than Wilbur Labs, who deeply believes in our vision, values, and the opportunity to make emerging brands available to more consumers.
Over the coming months, we will be focused on building out our core team, setting up scaled operations, and acquiring better-for-you brands. We are looking forward to sharing more exciting news on this front in the months to come.
The opportunity for smaller, better-for-you brands has never been greater. We could not be more thrilled to build a world-class team and create a portfolio of brands that help consumers live healthier, happier lives. Please reach out if you are interested in learning more by contacting us and check out our announcement for more details.
Best Regards,
Andy Cipra & Sean Lee
