GREENWICH, Conn., Sept. 13, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), a leader in home decor and home fragrance products, today announced that it has acquired 100% interests in Edelman B.V., a designer and marketer of everyday home, garden and seasonal decor, and Euro-Decor B.V., a designer and marketer of traditional and contemporary gift and florist products. The purchase price was not disclosed at this time. The Company noted that consideration for the two companies was within its historical valuation practices and objectives, and that the acquisitions will be accretive in the current fiscal year. Combined net sales for the two companies totaled approximately 75 million euros in calendar year 2003. Senior management of each company will continue to lead and manage these businesses.
The Edelman family founded Edelman, based in Reeuwijk, Netherlands, in 1898. Today, the company is a leading supplier in Europe of ceramics and home decorative items. Edelman designs and sources more than 12,000 products including indoor and outdoor planters, candle accessories, tabletop items and a broad range of Christmas products, such as lighting, ornaments, collectibles and artificial trees. The company sells to more than 2,500 active customers across Europe through showrooms, European trade shows, sales managers and independent sales agents. Edelman may be found on the Internet at www.edelman.nl.
Euro-Decor, an Almere, Netherlands-based company, was founded in 1978. The company's product lines feature decorative supplies for the florist industry along with glass and ceramic vases, baskets, floral arrangements, table centerpieces, wall decorations and plush animals. As a leading European decorative supplier, Euro-Decor designs and sources more than 10,000 products for over 2,200 active customers. Similar to Edelman, Euro-Decor markets its products through showrooms, European trade shows and independent sales agents. Euro-Decor may be found on the Internet at www.eurodecor.nl.
Commenting on the acquisitions, Bruce G. Crain, President of Blyth's Wholesale Group, said, "The acquisition of Edelman and Euro-Decor broadens our reach in the global home expressions market and augments our existing seasonal and home fragrance businesses in Europe in terms of product as well as geographic distribution and channel coverage. Both companies are highly focused on the design and development of on-trend products and bring sales and design-led talents within everyday home decor, providing balance to Blyth's portfolio of European companies. We look forward to working with these industry leaders and believe significant leverage will emerge from their addition to Blyth's worldwide resources."
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, USA, is a home expressions company competing primarily in the home fragrance, home decor, seasonal decorations and gift industry. The Company designs, markets and distributes an extensive array of candles, home fragrance products, decorative accessories, seasonal decorations and household convenience items, as well as tabletop lighting and chafing fuel for the Away From Home or foodservice trade. Blyth manufactures most of its candles and sources nearly all of its other products. Its products are sold direct to the consumer under the PartyLite(r) brand, to retailers in the premium and specialty retail channels under the Colonial Candle of Cape Cod(r), Colonial at HOME(r), Carolina(r), CBK(r), Seasons of Cannon Falls(r) and Holiday365(tm) brands, to retailers in the mass retail channel under the Florasense(r), Ambria(r), FilterMate(r) and Sterno(r) brands, to consumers in the catalog and Internet channel under the Miles Kimball(r), Exposures(r), Walter Drake(r), The Home Marketplace(r) and Directions...the path to better health(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), Colonial(r), Gies(r), Liljeholmens(r), Ambria(r), Carolina(r) and Kaemingk(r) brands. In addition, Blyth products are now sold in Europe under the Edelman and Euro-Decor brands.
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 economy as a whole and the weakness of the retail environment, the effects of our restructuring, 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 intregrate 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, in the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2004 and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2004.