Rather than buy its way into the rapidly growing natural and environmentally friendly cleaning product market, The Hain Celestial Groupannounced February 4 that it has struck a licensing agreement with the maven of domesticity and branding building Martha Stewart to create a line of natural home cleaning products. The products, which will carry the coveted Martha Stewart brand, will be created in collaboration with Stewart’s design team and will be primarily made from plants and minerals, Hain reported.

As Hain President and CEO Irwin Simon told investors during a February 4 earnings calls, creating its own product lineup was the best option for Hain to gain a foothold in the increasingly popular green cleaning market and compete with other fast-growing brands, such as Seventh Generation and Clorox’s Green Works. “We have tried to get into this category for a long time,” Simon said. “We [tried] to do acquisitions, [but] the multiples were just in the hemisphere.”

The Martha Stewart-branded line is expected to hit stores in September of this year. “I have spent plenty of time with Martha, and I got to tell you she is a great person up there for brands and really believes in quality brands,” he said, adding that Hain and Stewart “stand for a lot of the same things.”

Nutrition Business Journal research shows that U.S. sales of natural & organic household cleaners jumped 35% to $737 million in 2008, adding $191 million in new sales over 2007. As NBJ discusses in its 2009 Natural & Organic Personal Care and Household Products issue, which publishes later this month, a significant portion of new dollars added to the natural & organic household cleaning category last year were generated by Green Works, which entered the market in January 2008. The Green Works brand has proven that the mass market has a growing appetite for eco-friendly cleaning products, and Hain is smart to want a piece of the action—especially given its need to expand its mass market distribution. If Hain couldn’t buy a company in this hot product segment, launching under the guidance of a brand icon such as Stewart seems like a sensible and potentially lucrative second option.

To order NBJ’s upcoming Natural & Organic Personal Care and Household Products issue, subscribe to the journal or download a free sample issue of NBJ, go to www.nutritionbusinessjournal.com.

NBJ subscribers can read more of our coverage of the natural & organic household cleaning product market here:
Cleaning the House: Natural Household Cleaners Sweep It Up
Natural Cleaning Products Arise Later on the Healthy Lifestyles Learning Curve
Future Looks Bright for Green Commercial Cleaner Companies