In the bustling world of business acquisitions, numbers dominate decisions. But for one CEO, her recent decision was driven by something else. Bea Dixon, the founder of Atlanta-based The Honey Pot, rejected higher offers before striking a $380 million deal with investment firm Compass Diversified Holdings.
Westport, Connecticut-based Compass Diversified also owns the baby carrier brand Ergobaby.
Deal of Deals for Dixon
According to Bloomberg, Dixon could have probably gotten at least $500 million.
Dixon explained that she declined higher offers in order to select a partner who would enable the current team at The Honey Pot to maintain control of the business. And the deal with Compass Diversified provided that.
Although many of her client base, Black women, weren’t happy she sold at all, it seems Dixon has a master plan in mind.
Dixon’s journey with The Honey Pot began a decade ago in 2014, rooted in her personal experience and a vision for natural, plant-based feminine care products. She developed the brand’s first feminine wash from her apartment, setting the stage for a $121 million-in-revenue company. Today, The Honey Pot’s diverse range of products–skin care, lubricants, and feminine hygiene products–can be found in major retailers like Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more.
While the recent acquisition made headlines for its significant financial impact, Dixon shifted the focus away from numbers. For her, the essence of The Honey Pot lies not in its valuation but in the character of its business and its commitment to serving customers. Despite the deal’s magnitude, Dixon remains hesitant to label it as a mere “sale,” preferring to see it as a strategic partnership to further the brand’s mission.
“I don’t want us to be judged based on how much money we raise or how much money we make,” she told Fortune. “I want us to be judged on the character of our business, how we serve the humans we do.”
Dixon’s decision to choose Compass Diversified Holdings over higher offers reflects her dedication to preserving The Honey Pot’s essence. She prioritized a partner empowering the existing team to continue running the business, ensuring continuity and alignment with the brand’s values.
Black female founders often face systemic barriers in accessing capital and scaling their businesses, but Dixon didn’t seem pressured by funding concerns.
Dixon expressed that the moment had come for The Honey Pot to provide liquidity to investors and its 73 employees.
“It’s hard for anybody to raise this amount of money—anybody, period. And then when you throw into the pot the color of my skin, the body part that sits between my legs—then it gets even harder,” said Dixon, who earlier secured support from Richelieu Dennis’s New Voices Fund, a $100 million fund directed toward businesses owned or managed by women of color. “It’s important for everyone to see that things like this are possible, even though to me, we’re just doing what businesses do.”
On Jan. 31, The Honey Pot sold the majority of its business to Compass Diversified Holdings; Dixon retained a minority stake and her CEO title. The company’s original 15-person leadership team and existing owners will still retain a substantial minority stake in the company.
“Nobody knows our business better than us,” she said to Fortune. No matter “if you’ve been in business for 20, 30, 40 years — you’ve been in business doing what you’ve been doing,” she says. “Nobody is going to know how to run Honey Pot better than this team that’s been doing it this whole time.”
