Who Owns Burt's Bees: Current Owner, Founders, and the Full Ownership Timeline

Who owns burt's bees? Burt's Bees is owned by The Clorox Company. Clorox acquired the brand in late 2007 for a reported $925 million, and it has operated as a wholly-owned Clorox subsidiary ever since. No founding-era stakeholders remain involved. The brand is not independently owned, and it hasn't been for nearly two decades.

Understanding Who Owns Burt's Bees Through Its Ownership Timeline

Most people picture Burt's Bees as a small, founder-run natural brand. That image is part of the marketing not the current reality. The company passed through several distinct ownership stages before landing at Clorox. Each stage reshaped who held control and what the brand was worth.

1984 — Founded by Burt Shavitz and Roxanne Quimby in Maine

Burt Shavitz was a Maine beekeeper with surplus beeswax and no particular plan for it. Roxanne Quimby was a hitchhiker he picked up one afternoon. She had a sharper business mind than either of them probably expected. 

They started selling beeswax candles at craft fairs in 1984. Sales were modest at first $200 at their first fair, $20,000 by the end of that year.

Quimby drove most of the growth. Shavitz contributed the raw material, the aesthetic, and his face which ended up on every product. Lip balm arrived in 1991 and quickly became the brand's defining item.

1993 to 1999 — Quimby Forces Shavitz Out, Then Buys His Stake

The personal relationship between the two founders had already ended before business tensions surfaced. In 1993, Quimby pushed Shavitz out of operations. Six years later, in 1999, she bought his one-third ownership stake — in exchange for a house in Maine worth roughly $130,000.

That number matters. The company would sell for nearly a billion dollars less than a decade after that transaction. Shavitz later received a $4 million payment following the 2004 private equity deal, but his total return was a fraction of what the brand eventually generated.

2004 — AEA Investors Acquires 80%

Private equity firm AEA Investors bought 80% of Burt's Bees in 2004 for $173 million. Quimby kept the remaining 20% and held a board seat. This was a standard PE approach buy a brand with clear growth potential, accelerate distribution, then exit at a profit.

Quimby used a meaningful portion of her proceeds to purchase large parcels of forest land in Maine, a conservation effort that eventually contributed to the creation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in 2016.

2007 — The Clorox Company Acquires Burt's Bees in Full

In late 2007, Clorox acquired 100% of Burt's Bees through a merger transaction. The reported purchase price was $925 million, net of a separate $25 million payment tied to anticipated tax benefits. Clorox funded the deal entirely in cash, drawing on reserves and short-term borrowings.

The brand remained based in North Carolina. Its product line continued without major disruption.

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The Current Owner The Clorox Company

What Clorox Is

The Clorox Company is an American multinational consumer goods company founded in 1913 and headquartered in Oakland, California. It is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CLX. Clorox owns a wide portfolio of household and personal care brands across cleaning, food, charcoal, water filtration, and natural personal care categories.

Burt's Bees as a Clorox Subsidiary

Burt's Bees sits inside Clorox's portfolio as a wholly-owned subsidiary. That means Clorox holds full legal and financial ownership of the brand. In practice, subsidiaries typically retain their own product teams, brand voice, and operational structure they don't get absorbed into the parent company's day-to-day factory work. 

Burt's Bees has continued to operate from North Carolina with its natural-ingredient focus intact.

What Clorox provides is scale distribution infrastructure, marketing resources, and supply chain reach that a brand of Burt's Bees' original size couldn't easily build on its own.

Who Owns Clorox Itself

Since Clorox is publicly traded, no single person or entity owns Burt's Bees outright. Ownership of CLX shares is spread across institutional investors and individual public shareholders.

The largest institutional holders based on most recently reported data include Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street. These are index and asset management firms. Their ownership stake in Clorox is a financial position, not operational involvement in how Burt's Bees runs.

Insider ownership meaning Clorox executives and board members represents a very small percentage of total shares.

Why Clorox Bought a Natural Personal Care Brand

At first glance, a bleach company acquiring a beeswax lip balm brand seems like a stretch. It wasn't arbitrary. Clorox was actively building what it described as a natural and sustainable business platform. Burt's Bees was the anchor acquisition for that strategy. Around the same time, Clorox launched its Green Works line of plant-based cleaning products.

Interestingly, the influence ran in both directions after the acquisition. Burt's Bees had already achieved zero waste to landfills by 2010 a manufacturing standard that Clorox reportedly studied and worked to replicate across its own operations. The acquisition wasn't just about adding a brand to a portfolio. It introduced a set of operational and sourcing practices that Clorox applied more broadly.

Whether that sits comfortably alongside bleach manufacturing depends on your view. The brand tension is real. So is the operational track record.

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What Happened to the Original Founders After the Sale

Burt Shavitz

Shavitz was effectively removed from the business long before the Clorox sale. His financial return was modest relative to the brand's eventual value a house worth $130,000 in 1999, followed by a $4 million payment after the PE deal. 

He remained the public face of the brand in marketing materials, traveled to markets like Taiwan where he attracted genuine fan attention, and appeared to live simply on his farm in Maine. He died in July 2015 at age 80. His image still appears on Burt's Bees packaging today.

Roxanne Quimby

Quimby's financial outcome was far more substantial. She held 20% through the AEA deal and was fully bought out in the Clorox acquisition. 

She stepped away from Burt's Bees entirely and shifted her focus to land conservation in Maine. She has not been involved in brand operations since the sale.

Other Brands Clorox Owns

For context on where Burt's Bees fits inside the parent company: Clorox's brand portfolio includes Clorox bleach, Brita, Glad, Pine-Sol, Fresh Step, Kingsford, Hidden Valley, Liquid-Plumr, and Natural Vitality, among others. Burt's Bees is the company's primary natural personal care brand and one of its higher-growth segments.

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Conclusion

Burt's Bees is wholly owned by The Clorox Company a publicly traded firm, meaning no single person holds the brand outright. The founders have been gone for years. What remains is a natural personal care brand operating as a distinct unit inside a large consumer goods portfolio, shaped by a 2007 acquisition that's now nearly two decades old.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Burt's Bees independently owned?

No. Burt's Bees has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Clorox Company since 2007. It maintains its own brand identity but operates under Clorox's ownership and corporate structure.

Did Burt Shavitz benefit financially from the brand?

Partially. Shavitz was bought out in 1999 for a house worth ~$130,000 and later received $4 million after the 2004 private equity deal. He held no stake at the time of the $925 million Clorox acquisition.

Where is Burt's Bees headquartered today?

Burt's Bees is based in Durham, North Carolina. It did not relocate to Clorox's Oakland, California headquarters following the 2007 acquisition.

How much did Clorox pay for Burt's Bees?

Clorox acquired Burt's Bees in late 2007 for a reported $925 million, net of a $25 million payment tied to anticipated tax benefits. It was funded entirely in cash.

What other brands does Clorox own?

Clorox's portfolio includes Brita, Glad, Pine-Sol, Fresh Step, Kingsford, Hidden Valley, Liquid-Plumr, and Natural Vitality, among others. Burt's Bees is its main natural personal care brand.