Key facts
- Colgate-Palmolive is exploring the sale of personal care brands including Softsoap, Irish Spring, and Speed Stick.
- The company is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs on the divestment process.
- The divested brands could fetch over $1 billion.
- Colgate's personal care unit includes deodorants, bar and liquid soaps, shower gels, and skin care products.
- Colgate's personal care unit accounted for 17% of net sales in 2025.
- Colgate CEO Noel Wallace noted intensifying competition in North America.
Colgate-Palmolive is exploring the sale of several mass-market personal care brands, including Softsoap, Irish Spring, and Speed Stick, according to sources familiar with the matter. The consumer goods company is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs on the process, which could fetch over $1 billion for the divested brands. Colgate's personal care unit, which includes deodorants, bar and liquid soaps, shower gels, and skin care products, accounted for 17% of net sales in 2025.
Colgate CEO Noel Wallace recently stated that the company is facing intensifying competition in North America, and that improving the business there would involve a "long-term turnaround."
This move by Colgate aligns with a broader trend in the consumer goods sector, where companies are reshaping their portfolios to navigate economic pressures such as tariffs, financially strained consumers, and rising input costs. Recent examples include Unilever's sale of its food business to McCormick for $45 billion and its spin-off of the Magnum ice cream unit, as well as Nestle's sale of its vitamins business to Yellow Wood for around $1 billion.
Colgate, with a market capitalization of roughly $70 billion, has seen its stock rise about 11% year-to-date. In its most recent quarterly earnings, net sales increased by 4.9%, although organic sales in its North American market declined by 3%.