Wednesday, September 4, 2013

This Story Stinks

Maybe you will like it:

"With candles, it’s in the olfactory of the beholder" by Beth Teitell |  Globe Staff, September 04, 2013

In the wake of Tuesday’s sale of wax and wick behemoth Yankee Candle for $1.75 billion, one thing became clear: With the news that the candle giant had been sold to Jarden Corp., a Rye, N.Y.-based consumer products company, for almost $2 billion, some questions arose.

Wait until you see the questions.

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Leanne Ramos, Villanova’s colleague at a Copley Place shop, nodded along. She’s also a noncandle person. Then she revealed that some 15 years ago she worked at Yankee Candle’s “scenter of the universe” in South Deerfield, a Disney-esque village, complete with animatronic singing characters, year-round Christmas displays, wax activities for kids, and candles, lots of candles.

So did I once. It's the biggest employer in the county, and woe to this place when they leave.

“It’s a shopper I’ve never encountered anywhere else,” said Ramos. She described the Yankee customer as a “conservative mom” who’s eager to put forth a nurturing image. “It’s that Donna Reed thing,” she said....

How's your hair doing, ladies?

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Did that help light your way? The rest was basically a business brochure for Yankee Candle, not surpri$ing at all coming from the corporate pre$$. 

So was this:

"Yankee Candle sold for $1.75b to appliance firm" by Gail Waterhouse |  Globe Correspondent, September 04, 2013

A staple in malls across the country, Yankee Candle has more than 560 retail stores and manufactures more than 200 different fragrances, adding new ones each season.

In 2007, private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners bought Yankee Candle for $1.6 billion.

It began looking for buyers for the company last March.

Though some reports suggested it was looking to sell the candle maker for $2 billion, the Chicago firm worked with Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch on a deal with Jarden for the lower price.

“Madison Dearborn bought us right before the recession, and they were really helpful to us as we successfully managed our way through that,” Kent said. “Our sales dropped less than 5 percent.”

Yankee Candle has also invested millions in marketing and branding, launching campaigns for specialty scents such as the Man Candles collection, started in 2012. Fragrances include supposedly man-cave pleasing scents such as Riding Mower, which smells like fresh-cut grass, and MMM, Bacon!

The company also created a Boston Strong scent after the Boston Marathon bombing, sending $405,000, all net proceeds, to the One Fund for bombing victims.... 

I can't take the overpowering $mell of this burning propaganda and someone benefitting. Better get out of the spray room.

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The truth is for around here that is a top-level job, and I always had a problem with veterans complaining. Of course, they had seen cutbacks in benefits and such, so....

Also see:

The Globe and the New Media: Shop 'til You Drop!
War Lights the Candles of Prosperity 
Yankee Candle Flame Flickers
Yankee Candle Blown Out 

With a little help from me.