GREENWICH, Conn., July 18, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH) (the Company), a worldwide leader in the home expressions marketplace, today announced that its Monterrey, Mexico operations facility was destroyed by fire earlier this week. No employees or other persons were injured.
The Monterrey facility, which was approximately 181,000 square feet of leased space, primarily produced filled container candles for North American mass merchandisers. The Company's versatile supply chain structure, which includes two other major manufacturing facilities elsewhere in North America, is expected to absorb production requirements for the immediate future. Customer service disruptions, if any, are anticipated to be minimal. Blyth is insured for losses from this event.
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, USA, is a home expressions company that designs, manufactures and markets an extensive line of candles and home fragrance products including scented candles, potpourri and other fragranced products, as well as tabletop illumination products and portable heating fuel, and markets a broad range of related candle accessories. 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), Kate's(tm), Carolina(r) and Bloomin' Essence(tm) brands, in the mass retail channel under the Florasense(r), Ambria(r), FilterMate(r) and Sterno(r) brands and to the foodservice industry under the Sterno(r), Ambria(r) and HandyFuel(r) brand names. Blyth also markets a broad range of Creative Expressions products, including home decor, household convenience products and giftware under the CBK(r), Miles Kimball(r) and Exposures(r) brands, seasonal products under the Seasons of Cannon Falls(tm) and Impact(tm) brands, and decorative gift bags under the Jeanmarie(r) brand. In Europe, Blyth's products are also sold under the PartyLite, Colonial, Gies, Ambria, Carolina and Kaemingk 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 current slowing of the United States economy as a whole and the continuing weakness of the retail environment, the effects of our restructuring, the risk that we will be unable to maintain the Company's historic growth rate, the Company's ability to respond appropriately to changes in product demand, 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 management personnel, risks associated with the sourcing of raw materials for our products, competition in terms of price and new product introductions, and other factors described in this press release, in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2003 and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2003.