Is The Mane Choice Black Owned? We Reveal All
The Mane Choice is a company that provides multicultural customers with products that aim to strengthen and grow their hair. Since its founding in 2013, the company has grown from an extremely small venture into a multi-million dollar company. Courtney Adeleye created the business and still leads it to this day, even after the acquisition.
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Is The Mane Choice Black Owned?
Courtney Adeleye is a black woman and the CEO of Mane Choice, so to many it is a black owned company. But as parent company MAV Beauty Brands now owns Mane Choice, to others it can’t be classed as black owned.
Let’s explore this further.
Founding
Founded by Courtney Adeleye (a black woman) in 2013, The Mane Choice began when she was looking for ways to create homemade products to help her hair after an unfortunate hair dye incident. She shared some homemade hair products on her YouTube channel, and this led to her gaining a following, and soon she and her husband developed her products into her company.
After having problems finding products that correctly addressed the needs of her hair, Adeleye started experimenting with solutions at home. As she explored possible solutions to hair issues that she experienced, she discussed this exploration on YouTube. She shared the recipe she created for a deep conditioner and received a lot of positive feedback.
It turned out that many women with textured hair were experiencing the same issues as Adeleye and they were looking for products that would help get their hair strong and long. They flocked to her channel and started asking to buy the products she was offering.
She originally was trying to find a solution to the hair problems she had, without realizing initially that her products could evolve into a multi-million dollar company.
Thanks to the lack of similar products available, Adeleye was able to position her products in a way that filled a hole in the market and helped women looking for help.
Before getting involved with The Mane Choice, Adeleye was a registered nurse. Due to her background in science, she wanted to make sure that the formulation of her products was based on science and the needs of the customer. She used this scientific background to formulate and develop her original products.
The products from Mane Choice aim to help hair grow. This goal is reached with the addition of vitamins and nutrients determined using Adeleye’s scientific background. She was also able to use her experience as a Black woman to figure out what worked best for her hair type.
At the very beginning, Adeleye launched her company with a single product. She made sure that she launched her product with intention, after putting a lot of effort into developing great branding and powerful components like a well-thought-out website and logo. While other companies focus on styling the hair, this company focuses on hair health and growth.
Growth
While the projects were only offered online, initially, they are now offered in stores including Target. Since the creation of the brand, The Mane Choice products have sold in 60,000 stores nationwide. Adeleye wanted Target to be a retail partner since it is easily accessible to many people.
The product collection has expanded from one product to 100 since the company’s creation. While the company originally only offered topical hair products, the offerings have expanded to include a Manetabolism vitamin.
Some products by The Mane Choice include shampoos, conditioners, masks, hair oils, and items for the body.
The company offers a range of products that target different hair issues. Some products focus on purifying the scalp, while other products focus on detangling. Growth and strengthening continue to be priorities in the formulation of the products.
Adeleye has prioritized growth without sacrificing quality since the beginning of the foundation of her company. Her goal is to make sure that the good ingredients that she based her original formulas on still make up her products.
She does not allow manufacturers to make changes that sacrifice quality in the name of saving money or using harmful chemicals. She credits a lot of the company’s growth to this priority.
Adeleye also credits a good relationship with customers as a driving force for the success of her company. The company aims to listen carefully to what customers are requesting. This feedback then drives what the company offers in terms of products.
In 2019 the company reported it had net sales of more than $24 million. It also had very good profit margins. All of these things made it an attractive acquisition candidate.
IPO and Acquisition
The company went public in an IPO and was acquired by MAV Beauty Brands (MAVBF), a Canadian company. MAV discusses the acquisition in its Q3 2019 financial report.
It credits its decision to buy the company due to The Mane Choice’s passionate customer base and its brand’s values. The Mane Choice is also valued for its high social media following and its growing ability.
The acquisition occurred for $29 million in cash, with payments of up to 52.5 million for the three years following the sale, and equity consideration of $9 million.
At the time of this acquisition, MAV Beauty Brands already had many beauty brands as part of its company. These included Cake Beauty, Marc Anthony True Professional, and Renpure.
The company works to diversify its offerings so it attracts plenty of different customers. It primarily focuses on acquiring independent businesses to help those businesses scale up and give those businesses market share.
The acquisition company does this using its operating platform. It can support independent businesses by expanding their distribution ability and by offering them more space to innovate and market effectively. Among the four brands that MAV has, it sells products in 25 countries.
Adeleye is still the CEO of the company and she is now a shareholder within the MAV Beauty Brands company. After the acquisition, Adeleye launched a financial literacy program as a way of continuing her efforts to help build generational wealth in communities in need. She used some of the money from the acquisition for this fund, committing $30 million to financial literacy programs.
Adeleye decided to have MAV as a partner because she liked its entrepreneurial mindset, and its tendency to partner with retailers. She explained in interviews that a big reason that she wanted to make this partnership was so that MAV could use its strengths to help The Mane Choice scale up its domestic and international reach by creating supply chain efficiencies.
So while the company is no longer Black-owned, it is still run by a team of Black people and led by Adeleye. The company still makes its mission to provide high-quality products to people with textured hair.
Life After Acquisition
Since the acquisition, Adeleye has continued to lead the company as CEO. She also puts a lot of time into mentoring other Black women entrepreneurs. She does this through various charities that she supports and through her Masterclass.
The company has continued to grow under the MAV umbrella. The addition of the hair vitamin seems to be especially exciting to people on the business side since that is a high-growth area.
Thanks to the launch of several new collections, including the “POW!” collection, the company strives to stay current and develop products that appeal to its customers. It does this by keeping its health and science approach in mind. It also aims to disrupt the hair care category in unconventional ways.
The company has retained its loyal customer base after the acquisition. The company continues to be mentioned on many lists of good hair products to strengthen natural hair. It also maintains a quite strong following on social media.
The company has over half a million followers on Instagram, and its presence has expanded to many other social media platforms, including TikTok. The company continues to feature in many videos on the platform that helped start it, YouTube.
The Mane Choice has expanded beyond hair care. It currently offers everything from body care to products for children. Rather than only offering products for women, the company has also expanded to offer products for men, including a combination of hair and beard oil.
Is The Mane Choice Black Owned? Final Thoughts
After starting with a single hair growth product developed in Courtney Adeleye’s home, The Mane Choice has expanded to over 100 products in over 60,000 stores around the country. After this success, the company was acquired by MAV Beauty Brands in 2019. Adeleye is still the CEO of the company, thus, The Mane Choice is indeed black-owned.
