Neil DeFeo:Playtex will thrive with buyout. Playtex photoThe 200 Westport employees of Playtex Products Inc. are seeing visions of the Energizer bunny.
Energizer Holdings Inc. has announced it will buy Playtex for about $1.16 billion. But the fate of the Westport headquarters of the personal products company at the Nyala Farms office complex on Greens Farms Road is not known.
Playtex products include Hawaiian Tropic and Banana Boad sun screen, and Wet One wipes. St. Louis-based Energizer makes batteries, flashlights and shaving products. It will fold the company into its Schick Wilkinson Sword division later this year.
Neil DeFeo, chairman and chief executive officer of Playtex, said in a statement that Energizer offered a good premium over the company’s share price. “For our employees, it means becoming a part of a much larger consumer products business with the scale and resources to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment,” he said.
