116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Eco Lips started with lip balms made in a kitchen
Cedar Rapids entrepreneur Steve Shriver’s company is now valued at more than $20M
CEDAR RAPIDS — Steve Shriver of Cedar Rapids is a poster child for entrepreneurship.
He had an idea 20 years ago when he started Eco Lips. That was successful and, in 2021, he acquired Columbus Junction-based Simply Soothing, the manufacturer of the popular bug repellent Bug Soother.
Eco Lips began in a kitchen, with a $5,000 investment. The company now is valued at between $20 million to $30 million, according to Shriver, 51.
It’s an entrepreneurial love story, shared on the Eco Lips website, that began when Andrea Danielson was making lip balm in her kitchen as a hobby.
“Steve had larger-than-life lips and was always searching for a better balm,” the website relates. “When Steve met Andrea in 1995, he immediately fell in love with the lip balm, and moments later, he also fell in love with Andrea.
“They were married in 1997, and Steve, a lifetime entrepreneur, quickly spent Andrea’s life savings on ingredients and packaging for the couple’s first product, Hemp Lip Buzz.”
Eco Lips
By 2003, the Shrivers had built a specialized, private-label, natural body care company focused on making quality products for other successful brands.
That was when they teamed with their top sales rep, Jim King, to develop Eco Lips, the first organic lip balm to be marketed, Shriver said.
The company started in the Cherry Building in Cedar Rapids, using turkey basters to fill lip balm containers. It later moved to Marion.
After it outgrew that space, Eco Lips moved to a 90,000-square-foot building at 6000 Huntington Dr. NE in Cedar Rapids in 2021. One of its automated production lines can pump out 9,000 tubes of lip balm each hour.
The Eco Lip balm is made from all-natural ingredients, like sunflower oil and beeswax. The lip balm tubes, called "plant pods," are custom made of potatoes and rice in Thailand, a process not available in America, Shriver said.
The company’s Bug Soother, which even smells good, also is made from natural ingredients that last up to three years and can be effective beyond that, Shriver said.
Eco Lips employs a full-time doctor, who’s in charge of quality control. The doctor works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies.
Family business
Like many companies, Eco Lips took a hit during the pandemic.
Sales of its lip balms have recently improved, but are still about 10 percent below “normal,” Shriver said.
Still, Eco Lips is among the top 10 firms in its market, producing about a thousand different products, including beard oils and even pet products. Many of the products are custom made with a client's logo or name on them.
Eco Lips has 80 full-time employees, working two shifts five days a week to keep pace with the firm's $18 million a year in sales, with $2 million of that total coming via Amazon.
While Eco Lips products are available in 40,000 retail outlets, Shriver said he'd love to get them into in Target stores, Walgreen's and Lil' Drug Store, which also has its headquarters in Cedar Rapids.
Eco Lips is a family-run business. Shriver's brother, Rob, is CEO, and Chris Danielson, a brother-in-law, is product manager. Andrea runs Brewhemia, 1202 Third St. SE.
Shriver said he’s fielded inquires about selling the company, but he’s not interested. What about when family members retire?
"I can see us starting an employees ownership program or a combination of equity sale and employee ownership,“ Shriver said. ”We definitely want our people taken care of.“
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