Research Paper on:
Case Study: Burt's Bees

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so on. It is now faced with trying to compete in a marketplace that is mature and full of competitors; in addition, it doesnt know whether to remain simply a  manufacturer of its products or open retail locations. Its owner and founder, Roxanne Quimby, has always planned to sell the company, but now is uncertain whether she will reach the  $25 million in sales she feels she must have to make Burts Bees and attractive property. Problem Identification Weve looked at these briefly, but lets fill in some detail. The  market for bath products exploded between 1993 and 1995, and a host of companies sprang up to specialize in the new lines, particularly things like bath gels, scrubs and lotions.  These included companies like Garden Botanika, The Body Shop, Bath & Body Works and other "boutique" stores, but there was also ferocious competition from established companies like Johnson & Johnson  (Voomes, 1997). Burts Bees founder Roxanne Quimby apparently wanted to get in on this market, and in order to do so, cut many of the products that had made Burts  Bees successful in the first place. She says that she cut products "like crazy" from 1994 to 1996, dropping such lines as beeswax candles-the companys first product, and one of  its most popular (Voomes, 1997). Each time she cut one of the old products, she replaced it with a new product in the skin care line, because the company had  invested heavily in equipment to manufacture cosmetics, and also because it was easy to manufacture these products (Voomes, 1997). By the time she was done, the company kept only the  lip balm, moisturizer and baby powder and cut everything else. When they went into the cosmetics line, they developed 70 new products, all of which were made with only natural