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Beatrice Dixon, CEO and co-founder of The Honey Pot, was once a darling with women of color for creating the world’s first Black-owned, plant-based feminine hygiene line. But recently, many of Dixon’s supporters have accused the Atlanta-based entrepreneur of “selling out” after noticing that a number of the natural ingredients in her products were quietly replaced with synthetic alternatives. So she took to social media late Monday evening to confront the rumors that she’d been bought out and address the changes made to some longstanding items from The Honey Pot.
“Number one, The Honey Pot is still owned by my brother, myself, and our team,” Dixon said in a video uploaded to the company’s Instagram page. In the nearly fourteen-minute vid, the bulk of her message was delivered from a pre-written statement, and Dixon could be seen sighing and fighting back tears as she made her case. “Number two, we have updated the wash formula for good reason,” she continued. “I’ll explain some of the new ingredients, but I also acknowledge that we should have shared more communication about the updates.”
Dixon proceeded to name some of the new ingredients and the various certifications they received to qualify for The Honey Pot’s standards. Her third point was that she remained committed to the original vision that launched the company. Dixon then asserted that she and her family still use the company’s range of products. She further requested that her followers continue to trust her as well as hold her accountable.
“[The] Honey Pot is a human-owned brand,” the noticeably flustered CEO said. “I designed and created a brand that is revolutionary and owned by me, my brother, and our team. To negate the disruption this brand has created is to undermine everything our community, this brand, and I have achieved together. And that success is largely due to your deep love and support.”
Although Dixon may not have sold The Honey Pot as of today, that doesn’t mean she will not eventually do so. In fact, she has previously admitted that her ultimate goal is to get paid to leave The Honey Pot one day. In an interview she had a little less than two years ago with The Helm, Dixon said she wants to fight the stigma held by some Black women that selling their companies is wrong. “In other cultures they do, right?” she asked. “That’s how Silicon Valley was created.”
“I absolutely do want to exit my company and I’m so vocal about that because culturally as a Black woman,” she also told the outlet in August 2020, “getting investment dollars or exiting your company can be looked at as selling out, and what I want to regurgitate constantly to anybody, to any human that’s looking to The Honey Pot Company as a light, I want to be public that there’s no shame in exiting your business because that’s how you’re going to get to wealth.”
