Haleon is selling the iconic lip-balm brand ChapStick to Suave in a deal valued at more than $510 million.
The move came "to simplify" the British company's portfolio and "pay down debt."
“Selling the brand allows us to simplify our business and pay down debt more quickly. We are confident the brand will continue to thrive under its new ownership," said the group’s CEO Brian McNamara in a statement.
ChapStick started in the 1880s in Virginia (the product is still made in the state today).
According to the brand's site, "Dr. Charles Browne Fleet was a pharmacist and inventor who first opened his small, family-run pharmacy in Lynchburg in 1869. He was known to cook up experimental balms, salves and other remedies in his pharmacy, tinkering with recipes and ingredients to create products that would help his customers with a variety of ailments, big and small."
Sometime in the 1890s, Dr. Fleet created what we now call ChapStick. The original iteration resembled a small candle without a wick, wrapped in foil.
In 1912, Dr. Fleet asked his friend, John Morton, another Lynchburg resident, if he would be interested in buying the formula and rights to the lip emollient.
Morton agreed—paying just $5 for the product.
