Baby products company Frida is expanding into kids’ personal care

Frida For Kids

Courtesy: Frida for Kids

Baby products company Frida is expanding into a line of personal care products for kids ages 6 to 11 that will be sold in Walmart and on Amazon, the company told CNBC exclusively.

CEO Chelsea Hirschhorn said the launch marks the next natural step for the company, which has seen its first customers age into new categories, and offers an opportunity to secure shelf space in a category that's largely untapped and unexplored.

"It really wasn't necessarily only that there was this opportunity created in the retail environment or in culture, but it was really the dearth of genuine, thoughtful innovation for this stage of parenthood that felt like a rinse and repeat of our playbook in mother care and baby care," Hirschhorn told CNBC.

Hirschhorn, who created the company when her first child was a baby, said the gap in the market is one she's seen firsthand as a mother of four children. As her eldest child has grown, she said there were plenty of options in the baby aisle and teen aisle, but nothing in between to address the needs of young kids' personal care.

While the new category marks a significant step for the company, she said it's ensuring it's not alienating core customers looking for baby products.

Since its launch, Frida has generated more than $2 billion in retail sales and grown roughly 30% annually over the past five years, the company told CNBC exclusively. Though it began as a baby products company, it's now branched out into products for pregnancy, postpartum and now kids.

According to a report from Kings Research, the kids' personal care market was valued at roughly $82 billion in 2022 and was expected to reach $137 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 7%.

Hirschhorn said Walmart has been curating and launching a new aisle dedicated to kids' care, where parents can find products in between baby and adult options. That dedicated shelf space, along with Walmart's reach across the country and emphasis on value, made it an ideal destination for Frida for kids, she added.

"Walmart came to the table in a really exciting way and said, 'We see an opportunity in a dedicated spot for everything from tween deodorant to shampoo, nail care and oral care because this parent deserves convenience above all else,'" she said.

The new products span categories including body wash, deodorant, electric flossers and more, in the price range of $6.99 to $19.99. Hirschhorn said each of the products was designed specifically for kids in this age cohort without relying on certain ingredients that might not be appropriate for their age.

"It's a glaring gap," she said. "When I'm done with tear-free baby shampoo, strolling the aisles of the personal care section, the only thing that jumps out is … the section for men."

Retail innovation in the tween space has been expanding over the past few years. Companies like Sephora have seen explosive growth in kids' interest in beauty, while apparel retailers have created more dedicated sizing for tweens.

It coincides with Generation Alpha reshaping some of the retail landscape, as the digitally native and online-savvy cohort becomes increasingly important for brands to capture and build loyalty with. Alpha roughly starts with babies born in 2010 and goes through babies born in 2025, according to Merriam-Webster, but those start and end dates are debated.

Hirschhorn said Frida is taking notice of that trend.

"This is otherwise a pretty fragmented shopping experience for parents who are ready to graduate the diaper aisle," she said. "There's no holistic experience for all of the personal care products for kids with that age, and so that was a really important part for us, just as it was in mother care."