Bemis adds bidets to its toilet seat business

Sheboygan Falls, Wis.-based Bemis Manufacturing Co., the world's largest toilet seat maker, acquired Bio Bidet-brand maker BBC Innovations Corp. in Crystal Lake, Ill., to expand its product line of bidet toilets, smart toilet seats and accessories.

Founded in 1901, Bemis made wooden furniture and wagons before changing to toilet seats during the Great Depression and later added molding of plastic toilet seats and hinges.

The family-owned company's bathroom product line now includes elongated seats, heated seats, slow-closing seats, LED-lighted seats and potty training seats made from enameled wood, engineered thermoplastics and commodity resins.

With estimated annual sales of $265 million, Bemis ranks as the 36th-largest injection molder in North America, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.

In addition to Sheboygan Falls, Bemis production plants are in Lenoir, N.C., and Monterrey, Mexico.

While Bemis has sold some bidet products, the toilet seat maker entered the category "with a limited offering to get a foothold," Jon Bemis, general manager of Bio Bidet, said in a phone interview.

"We learned that to be a leader you need a full offering, a full catalog with products to meet all needs," said Bemis, a fourth-generation owner. "Bio Bidet has that, and that's why we were very interested to be a partner with them. This was as strategic of a fit as you could imagine between an innovative bidet company that is a market leader and Bemis, which has great brand recognition and great channels of distribution as the toilet seat leader. It's a great growth opportunity."

Bemis acquired BBC Innovations, which has been in business more than a decade, as part of a deal that went into effect Dec. 29, 2020. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Bemis said his family's company acquired the "master of this growing market" for bidets as well as a talented team. He declined to be more specific about the Crystal Lake facility and number of employees, but he did say the skilled staff was a "key part" of the acquisition.

"The people here have achieved staggering growth in this market in the last few years," Bemis said. "They are wired into product development and they have world-class digital marketing capabilities. They have been part of the secret sauce and they will be going forward."

The main expertise of the BBC Innovations staff is in design and consumer understanding, Bemis said.

"The core of what they do is develop products that are going to give the North American market, which has been thus far less interested in bidets, this new exciting category," he added.

For example, in 2020, Bio Bidet won an award from Good Housekeeping for its bidet toilet system called Prodigy, which retails for $2,400 and features three nozzle settings (oscillating, pulsating and rhythm), an enema function, a drier and a smart flusher that automatically activates the proper-sized flush.

Bemis said he learned about the hygienic appeal of bidets while visiting Japan in high school. He thinks more technological advances and even the pandemic are behind the wider interest recently.

"Bidets have been in the North American market for a very long time and now they're becoming a rapidly growing category. It's hard to pick any one given inflection point," Bemis said. "People have been interested in technology, and this is a tech product for your bathroom. From the simplest offering, which is a cleaning process, to self-opening and closing seats, heat and other amazing features, bidets elevate the bathroom from a technological point."

Then, there's a matter of waste reduction in terms of using less paper, which also was a selling point during the pandemic when panic buyers emptied store shelves of toilet paper last spring.

"In this era of COVID-19, talk about a product that increases hygiene and reduces toilet paper usage creates even more market penetration," Bemis said.

The pandemic also bodes well for bidet sales as Americans remodeled the homes where they were spending more time for work, school and play. Seventeen percent of home renovators who upgraded their toilet last year added a seat with a bidet — up 4 percentage points from 2019, according to Houzz's 2020 U.S. bathroom trends study.

Bemis and other company officials credit BBC Innovations with a visionary approach to product development that is transforming bidet toilets, seats and attachments from an uncommon luxury into a household necessity.

"Bio Bidet's innovative product offering and engineering capabilities perfectly complement the strength of Bemis, including our market penetration and distribution network," Bemis President and CEO Jeff Lonigro said in a news release. "Together, we look forward to pushing the boundaries of bidet and smart toilet seats to further enhance consumers' hygiene, sustainability and wellness."

Jason Han, BBC Innovations president, said in the same release that his team is pleased to join the Bemis family.

"We share a spirit of innovation and a mission to deliver products that transform our customers' bathrooms into a hygienic, intuitive and eco-friendly sanctuary," Han said.