GETTY^ (2 )44 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● ● ● ●
the store. You’d go into the retail
store and the experience was hor-
rible. If you were a person of color
who walked into a retail environ-
ment back then, you were basically
segregated. I used to say the only
place in America where segregation
is legal is in the beauty aisle.
Can you explain what that looked
like, how it could happen?
First, you would walk in and you’d
be followed around the store. Your
products would be isolated over in
this corner in the back, on the bot-
tom here with poor lighting. And
then the assortment would be hor-
rible. We found that it took a black
female consumer a trip to five differ-
ent retail stores to get the products
to do her hair. It took us 16 years to
get into retail, because we didn’t
believe that that was the right way
to service our customers.
Sundial is certified as a B Corp and
as a Fair Trade company. How do
you see those movements? Are they
making a difference?
You can see the impact just by walk-
ing into a store. The isolation is
all but gone, and the messaging is
respectful and thoughtful. So there’s
real change around how you look
to serve underserved consumers.
B Corp and Fair Trade, those certifi-
cations have helped because they’ve
provided their consumer with com-
fort that this company or this brand
or this product aligns with the per-
son’s values. Consumers are more
aware today. But there’s a lot of mis-
information as well. A certifying body
allows you to take comfort in, hey,
there’s been some measurement here.
You sold the company to Unilever
in 2017. What was that process
like?
It took us about five years. We like to
think of ourselves as a mission with a
business. The mission needs to con-
tinue to be developed, but it needs
to be developed at scale, because
if we’re going to actually bring the
economic impact and inclusion into
these communities, into our supply
chain, all of these women in West
Africa, we’re going to have to find a
much bigger platform.
Was Unilever the only company
you considered selling to, or were
there lots of suitors?There were lots of suitors, but none
that had already demonstrated the
desire and the ability to do thisright. Unilever had done Ben &
Jerry’s years before. Also, not many
companies have the sophisticationand the supply chain that Uni lever
has across the globe.
Did you at any point think
“Unilever is the problem”? I mean,
Unilever is why the market looked
like it did for so long. Did you eversee that as a con tradiction?
Community Building
Dennis bought the assets of Essence, the pioneering magazine for African-
American women, from Time Inc. in 2018. That gave him control of the Essence
Festival, a hugely popular musical and cultural gathering. At this year’s event,
former First Lady Michelle Obama (left) was interviewed by Gayle King.If you were a
person of color
who walked
into a retail
environment
back then, you
were basically
segregated.