It always seems like you never have Chapstik – er, lip balm – when you really need it. Even Napoleon Dynamite was plagued by that little tube’s ability to disappear from his pocket and end up sitting on his desk at home. Some will argue that they never use lip balm because it just makes the problem of chapped lips worse, but I know for a fact that those people give in as soon as their “lips hurt real bad.” As life saving as lip balm can be at the right time, you’d still never expect it to allow a guy who lived in a turkey coop to be the face of a billion dollar business. Yes, Burt’s Bees was sold two years ago to Clorox for just shy of a billion dollars.
Apparently the whole story is quite contentious, as Burt of Burt’s Bees was bought out for just a few hundred thousand dollars by his then lover and business partner. She eventually sold the business for a much larger sum. Burt now has about $4 million to his name, but still chooses to live in a turkey coop with no electricity or running water; however, he has expanded the coop. The whole story is worth a read, and can be found at the NY Times. So, how did this cottage enterprise in Maine turn into a billion dollar business located in Durham, NC? Organic and all-natural products got hot. People will pay more for their lip balm (or cream, or shampoo, or soap) if it’s produced in an environmentally sound way with ingredients that are organic or all-natural. This is what Burt’s Bees is all about, although it stands to be determined whether consumers will still trust the authenticity of the company, now that it’s owned and operated by a bleach company.
If you want to share in a similar rags to rags story (or if you’re more interested in rags to riches), then an internship with Burt’s Bees is worth checking out. Right now there’s only one option – an Engineering internship at their office in Research Triangle Park, NC. We love that the job descriptions on Burt’s Bees’ Careers page are really simple and clear, but they probably could have done a better job with the internship description. They don’t say what kind of Engineer they’re looking for, nor do they mention whether the position is paid (most Engineering internships are paid). At least you can apply for the position directly from the posting. Still, they do a nice job with their employment branding – just check out their Working at Burt’s Bees page. We can’t speak to whether the culture at Burt’s has changed since the company was acquired, but we imagine that it’s in Clorox’s best interest to do whatever it takes to maintain the brand’s authenticity. That should start with treating their people the same way they were treated when it was just Burt’s Bees.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Now where’s my lip balm…
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Tags: consumer products, engineering, Internships, North Carolina, organic
The internships are for Industrial Engineering students.