Yankee Candle reports loss

The Yankee Candle Co. Inc., a Deerfield-based designer, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer of premium scented candles, said its first-quarter loss widened due to an "unprecedented macroeconomic environment."

The company said it incurred a net loss of $11.5 million for the first quarter of 2009, compared with a net loss of $7.9 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Total revenue for the first quarter was $125.7 million, a 10.8 percent decrease from the prior year first quarter, the company said.

Among factors affecting results was the 2008 bankruptcy of the retail chain Linens 'n Things, a "significant wholesale customer" of Yankee Candle, Yankee Candle said.

Craig Rydin, company chairman and chief executive, said in a statement: "As we anticipated, unprecedented macroeconomic conditions impacted the company's first quarter performance. The economy continued to pressure customer traffic and consumer spending behavior. Our wholesale customers continued to constrain their open-to-buy, as they reduced inventories. Additionally, we continue to have an unfavorable wholesale match-up due to the bankruptcy of Linens 'n Things. While the cumulative effect of these conditions impacted our business as expected, we did exceed our internal adjusted EBITDA projections in the first quarter of 2009. Our proactive focus on supply chain productivity and SG&A expense reductions versus prior year and internal projections resulted in a better than projected EBITDA performance."

Yankee Candle was purchased by an affiliate of Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, a Chicago investment firm, in 2007. To read a Globe story about that acquisition, please click here. The photo that accompanies this post was taken from Yankee Candle's website.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)