diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-beautifulsoup4/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-beautifulsoup4/package.py
index 64368fe70d..d3a260bd7f 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-beautifulsoup4/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-beautifulsoup4/package.py
@@ -37,5 +37,7 @@ class PyBeautifulsoup4(Package):
 
     extends('python')
 
+    depends_on('py-setuptools', type='build')
+
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         python('setup.py', 'install', '--prefix={0}'.format(prefix))