SMITHKLINE BEECHAM CEPACOL BRAND ACQUIRED BY J. B. WILLIAMS,
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
SMITHKLINE BEECHAM CEPACOL BRAND ACQUIRED BY J. B. WILLIAMS, SmithKline Beecham announced March 18. Privately held J. B. Williams is purchasing the U.S. and Puerto Rico marketing rights to the Cepacol line, which includes a mouthwash/gargle and a variety of flavored dry and sore throat lozenges. Terms of the sales agreement were not released.
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SMITHKLINE BEECHAM CEPACOL BRAND ACQUIRED BY J. B. WILLIAMS, SmithKline Beecham announced March 18. Privately held J. B. Williams is purchasing the U.S. and Puerto Rico marketing rights to the Cepacol line, which includes a mouthwash/gargle and a variety of flavored dry and sore throat lozenges. Terms of the sales agreement were not released. The Cepacol line, which was part of the Marion Merrell Dow OTC business that was merged into SmithKline Beecham in September 1992, generated sales of approximately $18 mil. in 1993, SmithKline said. SmithKline Beecham described the sale of the Cepacol line as part of the company's "strategy of concentrating on its mainstream OTC healthcare business." Marion Merrell Dow will continue to manufacture the product line and market it outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico. J. B. Williams, headquartered in Glen Rock, NJ, as reincarnated by Greenwich, CT-based investment firm Brynwood Partners when it acquired several men's toiletry lines from SmithKline Beecham in December 1992. The brands purchased at that time from SmithKline included Aqua Velva, Lectric Shave, Brylcreem, and Williams. Until its sale to Beecham in 1982, J. B. Williams Company had marketed the Aqua Velva, Lectric and Williams brands as a separate subsidiary of Nabisco. |