Brookstone Aims to Sell Gardeners Eden
Massage chairs and mulch, it appears, don't go together.Brookstone Inc. said this week it would explore the sale of Gardeners Eden just two months after agreeing to be acquired by a group of investors for $456 million.
The group buying Merrimack, NH-based Brookstone is led by OSIM International, a Singapore-based lifestyle products company that markets massage chairs through 700 OSIM stores. The new owners expect to open the first Brookstone stores in Asia in Singapore and Hong Kong before the end of the year.
In the United States, Brookstone already has begun selling OSIM massage chairs and other health-lifestyle products.
Gardeners Eden offers garden-inspired fashion and lifestyle products through five Gardeners Eden retail stores, catalogs and a Web site, gardenerseden.com. In fiscal year 2004, the brand had total revenue of $16 million and an operating loss before taxes of $3.6 million.
"The divestiture of Gardeners Eden will allow Brookstone to dedicate all of its energy and resources to our core Brookstone business," Brookstone chairman/president/CEO Michael Anthony said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, Brookstone reported that sales for the eight weeks ended June 25 totaled $62.6 million, a 6.5 percent decline compared with last year. Same-store sales decreased 10.8 percent in the period.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
