GREENWICH, Conn., April 14, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), a leader in home decor and home fragrance products, today announced the formation of the Office of the Chairman, effective May 1, 2004. The Office establishes a new organizational structure for the Company based on its distribution channels and furthers CEO succession planning efforts that began several years ago.
Over the past five years, the Company's product offerings have expanded from predominately candles and related accessories to include various forms of home fragrance as well as seasonal decorations, home decor, household convenience products and gifts. In addition, the Company has broadened its distribution channels to include catalog and Internet in addition to its previously existing direct selling, consumer wholesale and away from home channels. Today, the Company believes that an organizational structure defined by the way in which the Company reaches its customers would enable collaboration, cross-promotion and, where appropriate, cross merchandising most effectively. Moreover, creating more fully integrated operating segments will enable the advancement of CEO succession planning by allowing for additional delegation of responsibility to each of the key executives leading Blyth's operating segments. The Office of the Chairman consists of:
-- Frank Mineo, Senior Vice President of Blyth, President - Direct
Selling Group
-- Bruce Crain, Senior Vice President of Blyth, President -
Wholesale Group
-- Robert B. Goergen, Jr., Vice President of Blyth,
President - Catalog & Internet Group
-- Robert H. Barghaus, Vice President of Blyth & Chief Financial
Officer
Commenting on the new organizational structure, Robert B. Goergen, Blyth's Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "Leading Blyth successfully in the twenty-first century will continue to be an evolving process of re-examining our marketplace and re-positioning our business groups to drive sustainable growth. Further, effective immediately, I plan to relinquish the title of President of Blyth, Inc., allowing this leadership team to assume more fully responsibility and accountability for Blyth's day-to-day operations within their respective operating segments. I will rely on Frank, Bruce, Rob and Bob to drive the sales and profits of Blyth, allowing me to focus on corporate strategy, management development and financial stewardship." To support its critical management development efforts, the Company named Jane Casey, a Blyth Vice President, to lead its Organization & Management Development efforts. Mr. Goergen continued, "By focusing exclusively on developing Blyth's future leaders, Jane will be a key partner to me and to the Office of the Chairman."
Frank Mineo, Senior Vice President of Blyth has been named President of the Direct Selling Group. In order to integrate more fully the various activities related to this important channel of distribution, PartyLite Manufacturing will be integrated into PartyLite Worldwide Operations. Previously, PartyLite manufacturing had been overseen by Bruce Crain, who had oversight responsibility for all of Blyth's worldwide manufacturing operations. Mr. Crain, Senior Vice President of Blyth, has been named President of the Wholesale Group and retains his responsibilities for Blyth HomeScents International, The Sterno Group, Blyth Global Sourcing and Blyth Research & Development. In addition, Mr. Crain will now assume oversight responsibility for Blyth's wholesale Creative Expressions businesses, led by John Dammermann. Mr. Dammermann has served as interim president of Midwest, Inc. for the past year and recently appointed Jeffrey Wilson to that position. Mr. Dammermann will resume his leadership of the collaborative efforts he has championed among these businesses.
Robert B. Goergen, Jr., Vice President of Blyth, has been named President of the Catalog & Internet Group. He will continue to oversee Blyth's Miles Kimball business, into which Walter Drake, Blyth's most recent acquisition, is being integrated. Mr. Goergen also continues to have responsibility for acquisitions and corporate development, as well as Blyth's Corporate Technology Group.
Robert H. Barghaus, Vice President of Blyth and Chief Financial Officer, completes the Office of the Chairman, retaining all of his current responsibilities. In addition, Mr. Barghaus will assume oversight responsibility for Investor Relations, previously led by Ms. Casey. Tyler Schuessler, Director, Investor Relations will report directly to Mr. Barghaus.
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, USA, is a home decor and home fragrance company that sells its products through multiple channels of distribution throughout North America, Europe and Australia. The Company 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 chafing fuel. Blyth also designs 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) brands. Blyth also designs and markets a broad range of home decor, household convenience products and gifts under the CBK(R), Miles Kimball(R), Walter Drake(R) and Exposures(R) brands and seasonal products under the Seasons of Cannon Falls(TM) and Holiday365(TM) brands. In Europe, Blyth's products are also sold under the PartyLite(R), Colonial, Gies(R), Ambria(R), Carolina(R) and Kaemingk(R) 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 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 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2003 and in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2003.