GREENWICH, Conn., April 7, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), a leading multi-channel designer and marketer of home fragrance products, home decor products and household convenience items, today announced that it has declared a semi-annual cash dividend of $0.10 per share on the Company's common stock for the six months ended January 31, 2009. The semi-annual dividend, authorized at the April 7, 2009 Board of Directors meeting, will be payable to shareholders of record as of May 1, 2009 and will be paid on May 15, 2009.
Robert B. Goergen, Blyth's Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "In light of very low visibility given the macroeconomic environment, we are taking a conservative approach to our dividend payment in the first half of fiscal 2010 in spite of our strong cash position and healthy balance sheet. Our current top priority is to preserve cash. We will evaluate our dividend payment again in the back half of the year, taking into consideration Blyth's operating performance, our expected retirement of the remaining $25 million in 7.9% senior notes due in October and general economic conditions."
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, USA, is a Home Expressions company that markets an extensive array of home fragrance products, decorative accessories, seasonal decorations and household convenience items. The Company sells its products through multiple channels of distribution, including the home party plan method of direct selling and one-on-one direct selling, as well as through the wholesale and catalog/Internet channels. Blyth also markets tabletop lighting and chafing fuel for the Away From Home or foodservice trade. The Company manufactures most of its candles and chafing fuel and sources nearly all of its other products. Its products are sold direct to the consumer under the PartyLite(r), Two Sisters Gourmet(r) and ViSalus Sciences(r) brands, to retailers in the premium and specialty retail channels under the Colonial Candle(r), CBK(r) and Seasons of Cannon Falls(r) brands, to retailers in the mass retail channel under the Sterno(r) brand, to consumers in the catalog and Internet channel under the As We Change(r), Miles Kimball(r), Exposures(r), Walter Drake(r), The Home Marketplace(r), Easy Comforts(r) and Boca Java(r) brands, and to the Foodservice industry under the Sterno(r), Ambria(r) and HandyFuel(r) brands. In Europe, Blyth's products are also sold under the PartyLite(r) brand.
Blyth, Inc. may be found on the Internet at www.blyth.com.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. Actual results could differ materially due to various factors, including the slowing of the United States or European economies or retail environments, the risk that we will be unable to maintain our historic growth rate, our ability to respond appropriately to changes in product demand, the risk that we will be unable to integrate the businesses that we acquire into our existing operations, the risks (including foreign currency fluctuations, economic and political instability, transportation delays, difficulty in maintaining quality control, trade and foreign tax laws and others) associated with international sales and foreign sourced products, risks associated with our ability to recruit new independent sales consultants, our dependence on key corporate management personnel, risks associated with the sourcing of raw materials for our products, competition in terms of price and new product introductions, risks associated with our information technology systems (including, susceptibility to outages due to fire, floods, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, break-ins and similar events) and other factors described in this press release and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2008.