GREENWICH, Conn., April 17, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), the world's largest manufacturer of candles and home fragrance products, conducted a conference call today to discuss its acquisition of Midwest of Cannon Falls, Inc., a creative expressions company, which was announced yesterday.
In an all-cash transaction, Blyth purchased 100% ownership of Midwest of Cannon Falls, which included $25 million in cash and approximately $30 million in the assumption of long-term debt, representing an EBIT multiple in keeping with the Company's practice and objectives. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings this fiscal year. The Company anticipates Midwest of Cannon Falls' annualized sales to be approximately $80 million, depending on the strength of the U.S. retail environment as the year progresses.
Commenting on the acquisition, Robert B. Goergen, Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "We have taken a step toward fulfilling our strategic goals to meet the long-term objectives of our business. Midwest of Cannon Falls will make an excellent addition to Blyth's family of companies."
The U.S. dial-in number for the telephone replay is (800) 475-6701, and the international dial-in number is (320) 365-3844. The access code for the replay is 583039. The call will be archived on Blyth's Web site at www.blythinc.com.
Blyth, Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, CT, 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.