GREENWICH, Conn., April 17, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), the world's largest manufacturer of candles and home fragrance products, has scheduled a conference call today at 3 p.m. eastern to discuss its acquisition of Midwest of Cannon Falls, Inc., a creative expressions company, that was announced yesterday.
Commenting on the acquisition, Robert B. Goergen, Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "Midwest of Cannon Falls is an exciting addition to the Blyth family of companies and an important element in the continued implementation of Blyth's growth strategy in the non-fragranced segment of our business. We are pleasantly surprised in the greater-than-expected level of interest from the investment community and media in this acquisition. As such, and in the spirit of fair disclosure to all, I look forward to offering more details about Midwest and the transaction this afternoon."
The conference call will take place today at 3 p.m. eastern and will be broadcast live over the Internet, at www.blythinc.com. The U.S. dial-in number is (800) 553-5260, and the international dial-in number is (612) 332-0932. The call will be available for replay starting at 7:30 p.m. eastern today through 11:59 p.m. on April 20, 2001. The U.S. dial-in number for the telephone replay is (800) 475-6701, and the international dial-in number for the telephone replay is (320) 365-3844. The access code for the replay is 583039. The call will be archived on Blyth's Web site.
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., USA, designs, manufactures and markets an extensive line of candles and home fragrance products including scented candles, potpourri and other fragrance products 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 mid-tier and premium retail channels, under the Colonial Candle of Cape Cod(r), Kate's Original Recipe(tm) and Carolina Designs(r) brands and in the mass retail channel under the Ambria(tm), Florasense(r) and FilterMate(r) brands. In Europe, its products are also sold under the Gies, Colony and Wax Lyrical brands. Blyth also markets a broad range of non-fragranced products for the consumer market, including decorative seasonal products under the Midwest of Cannon Falls(r) and Impact(tm) brand names, paper-related products under the Jeanmarie(r) brand and tabletop illumination products and portable heating fuel for the hotel, restaurant and catering trade, under the Sterno(r) and HandyFuel(r) brand names. Net Sales for the twelve months ended January 31, 2001 totaled $1,197,197,000.
Blyth, Inc. can be found on the Internet at www.blythinc.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 which are other than statements of historical facts. Actual results could differ materially due to various factors, including the risk of a continuing weakness of the retail environment, the effects of our restructuring, the risk of maintaining the Company's growth rate, the Company's ability to respond to increased product demand, the risks (including foreign currency fluctuations) associated with international sales and foreign products, the risks of being able to recruit new independent sales consultants, dependence on key management personnel, 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 October 31, 2000 and in the Company's Annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2000.