GREENWICH, Conn., March 24, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), a leader in home decor and home fragrance products, announced today the appointment of Jeffrey Wilson to President of Midwest, Inc., the Company's North American premium wholesale seasonal decorations business. Most recently, Mr. Wilson served as the Vice President of Midwest's brand team, leading the company's creation of its new signature Seasons of Cannon Falls(tm) brand image and marketing strategy. He has also led Midwest's marketing and creative functions. Prior to joining Midwest in 1998, Mr. Wilson held leadership positions at Hallmark and Windsport.
Mr. Wilson succeeds John Dammermann, Blyth's Vice President, Creative Expressions, who also served as Midwest's interim President for the past year following the retirement of Kathy Brekken. Mr. Dammermann will now focus exclusively on leadership of Blyth's North American premium seasonal and home decor businesses.
Robert B. Goergen, Blyth's Chairman of the Board and CEO, said, "In addition to the strength of Jeff Wilson's leadership and vision, his appointment as President of Midwest ensures the continuity of brand and product focus that has made this business so successful. Moreover, in being able to focus fully on Blyth's North American premium seasonal and home decor operations, John Dammermann can resume his role of promulgating numerous strategic growth opportunities and collaborative initiatives underway among our businesses."
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. Within its Creative Expressions segment, 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, 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(r), Colonial, Gies(r), Ambria(r), Carolina(r) and Kaemingk(r) brands.
Additional information about Blyth, Inc. can 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 present and future restructurings, 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.