Honest Co, a consumer goods company founded by actress Jessica Alba, filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Friday following a strong year that was driven by a pandemic-driven surge in demand for baby products, lotions and sanitizers.
The company, which plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol “HNST,” said its revenue jumped about 28% to $300 million for the year ended Dec. 31, with diapers and wipes accounting for about two-thirds of its sales.
Honest Company’s 2020 growth was driven in part by a bump in digital sales, which represented 55% of its revenue last year. Digitally-native brands like Honest, which sells products on Honest.com and digital retailers like Amazon, benefited from a overall shift to ecommerce last year as brick-and-mortar stores shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. US e-commerce sales rose 32.4% in 2020 to $791.7 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.
“We see consumers increasingly self-educating on the benefits of clean and natural products through social media, influencers and other online content, driving digital engagement and purchasing that supports continued outsized growth of the ecommerce channel,” the company wrote in its prospectus.
Alba started Honest Company with a mission to make consumer products that the actress deemed “clean,” excluding chemicals and materials like parabens and sulfates. The brand’s approach to labeling its products has led to trouble in the past. In 2017, the company settled a lawsuit that claimed it fraudulently labeled some of its products as “natural,” “plant-based,” or “no harsh chemicals (ever!).”
