Beauty and Personal Care M&A – Q2 2025

Despite the political uncertainty that defined 2024 and the beginning of 2025, total North American M&A activity regained some momentum in Q1, recording a +19.8% increase in deal count and a +10.3% rise in deal value relative to Q1-2024. However, dealmaking in the consumer sector broadly, and in the beauty and personal care segment specifically, remains below historical trends. So far in 2025, beauty and personal Care deals represent 12.8% of overall consumer transaction volume, slightly above the five-year average of 12.0%. Partially offsetting lower transaction volumes, median deal value has risen in 2025, suggesting that investors are increasingly targeting larger, higher quality assets. We are seeing legacy brands increasingly turn to M&A to keep up with rapidly changing
customer preferences and shopping habits. While the outlook for the rest of the year remains clouded by global trade tensions and recession risks, we believe that the need to stay relevant and keep up with consumer trends will continue to necessitate dealmaking, particularly for private equity-backed brand platforms. Private equity firms are still sitting on near-record amounts of uninvested funds (“dry powder”) and will likely become more aggressive pursuing add-on investments for the platform companies they purchased during the ’20-’22 M&A boom to market.

Key Takeaways

• Dealmaking is driven by the need to remain relevant to stay ahead of quickly evolving consumer preferences
• PE groups are still sitting on high levels of uninvested capital and will likely seek to increase add-on acquisitions as they ready platform investments for resale
• Demand for personalized and transparent products continues to grow in the increasingly digital beauty and personal care space

For more information, please contact Sophea Chau, Senior Managing Director, at 617.603.8963 or Max Traynor, Senior Associate, at 617.603.8966.