Woodstream Corporation, a portfolio company of Vestar Capital Partners, is a 150 year old consumer products company that manufactures and markets lawn and garden, pet, and pest control products.  Woodstream offers 2,500 unique products under recognizable brands such as Victor®, Safer® Brand, Cinger ®, Concern®, Perky-Pet®, No/ No®, Havahart®, Dr. T’s Nature Products®, Zareba®, Mosquito Magnet®, Terro®, Sweeney’s®, and All Season®.

Woodstream and its private equity owner wanted to streamline its product portfolio and engaged the TKO Miller team to divest its Outdoor Living and Garden Décor division, including the CobraCo and Garden Blue Ribbon brands and private label product lines.  Similar to many other companies selling through big box retailers, CobraCo faced a high degree of customer concentration. TKO Miller applied a process designed to address the unique challenges of divesting product lines that live within a corporation.  Challenges of product line divestitures often include:

• properly separating consolidated/comingled financials,
• addressing shared assets and people,
• maintaining supply change,
• having an incomplete team and assets to run as standalone business,
• mitigating competitive issues,
• agreeing on transition services

TKO Miller approached buyers in the lawn and garden industry, financial buyers, international buyers, and buyers within adjacent industries and markets.

The CobraCo and Garden Blue Ribbon brands and private label product lines were sold to MAT Holdings Inc, a privately held, globally diversified manufacturing, marketing, and distribution company, providing quality products and trusted brands to the Automotive and Consumer markets.  MAT Holdings had limited exposure to lawn and garden products but shared many of CobraCo’s customers.