The Honest Co., the consumer-products company founded by actress Jessica Alba, has filed for an initial public offering.
The Los Angeles-based company on Friday filed to sell $100 million worth of shares, although that’s often a placeholder used to calculate filing fees.
In the prospectus, Honest said its sales grew 27.6% to $300.5 million in 2020, from $235.6 million in 2019. It lost $14.5 million in 2020, or 85 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.83 a share in the previous year.
“Authenticity is our authority,” the company said. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we went into lockdown, people became more aware of their health and what they bring into their homes. Honest never wavered in being there for them. “
The company billed itself as “nimble,” saying that amid health concerns with the novel coronavirus it was able to bring to market a new sanitizing and cleaning collection in less than six months.
“We have experienced significant growth since our launch in 2012, including strong recent growth in household and wellness,” Honest said. “This growth has placed significant demands on our management, financial, operational, technological and other resources.”
Honest filed to list shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol HNST. Underwriters include Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Jefferies.
Honest bills itself as a maker of “natural” consumer products, from baby diapers to personal-care and household products, that don’t have chemicals it says are harsh or potentially harmful to health and the environment.
“We believe that our consumers are modern, aspirational, conscious and style-forward and that they seek out high quality, effective and thoughtfully designed products,” it said.
Over the years, several consumers have questioned the company’s claims of using environmentally friendly or organic ingredients in some of its products, including sunscreen and baby formula.
In 2016, the company vowed to reformulate some of its cleaning products after The Wall Street Journal reported that some of its laundry detergents had an ingredient it had pledged to avoid.
