The Gillette Company announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Rembrandt(R) brand of at-home and professional teeth-whitening products from privately-held Den-Mat Corporation of Santa Maria, California.
The transaction, expected to be completed in the second quarter,
is subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Rembrandt is a well-established, premium-priced whitening brand
with strong consumer loyalty and excellent U.S. retail
distribution and shelf position," said Bruce Cleverly, president,
Gillette Oral Care. "While we will continue our focus on Oral-B's
core franchise in manual and power brushing, this acquisition
places us in the dynamic whitening segment that will be a platform
for future growth."
With its Oral-B products, The Gillette Company is a worldwide
leader in the $5 billion total brushing market. The brand includes
manual and power toothbrushes for adults and children, oral
irrigators and oral care centers and interdental products such as
dental floss. Oral-B manual toothbrushes, the foundation and
largest category of The Gillette Company's oral care business, are
used by more dentists and consumers than any other brand in the
U.S. and many international markets.
The Rembrandt product portfolio includes whitening toothpastes,
bleaching kits, mouth rinses and breath fresheners for consumer
and professional use. Rembrandt is a division of Santa Maria,
California-based Den-Mat Corporation, one of the leading
manufacturers of cosmetic restorative dentistry and bio-medical
products including the fast-growing Cerinate(TM) brand of
porcelain laminates which offer people a painless way to reshape
their smiles. Den-Mat was founded in 1974 by Dr. Robert Ibsen, a
practicing dentist.
