GREENWICH, Conn., Aug. 4, 2008 (PRIME 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 acquired the assets of As We Change. The brand will become part of the Miles Kimball Company, headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Launched in 1996, As We Change is the first national mail-order catalog to focus exclusively on the needs and preferences of women age 40+, providing a convenient place to turn for products and solutions. The print catalog, which reaches millions of women annually, offers a variety of high-quality, well-researched products in categories that include nutrition, beauty, skin care, exercise, lifestyle, and personal care. Visit As We Change on the Internet at www.aswechange.com.
"The addition of the As We Change brand to Blyth will complement our existing direct-to-consumer portfolio while enhancing our market share within the catalog and Internet space," said Robert B. Goergen, Blyth's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. "Moreover, it fits squarely with our strategy to seek attractively priced acquisitions that can leverage our existing industry expertise and geographic footprint."
Blyth acquired substantially all of As We Change's inventory, intellectual property and customer buyer file. The assets will be managed by the Miles Kimball Company management team, which also has responsibility for the Miles Kimball, Exposures, Walter Drake, The Home Marketplace, and Easy Comforts brands. Financial results from the acquisition will be included in Blyth's Catalog & Internet segment for segment reporting purposes.
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, 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) and Two Sisters Gourmet(tm) brands, to consumers in the catalog and Internet channel under the Miles Kimball(r), Exposures(r), Walter Drake(r), The Home Marketplace(r), Easy Comforts(tm) and Boca Java(tm) brands, to retailers in the premium and specialty retail channels under the Colonial Candle(tm), CBK(r) and Seasons of Cannon Falls(r) brands, to retailers in the mass retail channel under the Sterno(r) brand, 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), risks associated with changes in our effective tax rate 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.