Beautybank and HSN to Launch Made-for-Television Beauty Brand
BEAUTYBANK AND HSN TO LAUNCH MADE-FOR-TELEVISION BEAUTY BRAND
New York, NY and St. Petersburg, FL, March 6, 2008 – BeautyBank, a subsidiary of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) and HSN, an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) today announced plans to launch a first-to-market beauty brand specifically developed for television retail. BeautyBank has developed the brand exclusively for distribution on HSN and HSN.com. The venture between BeautyBank and HSN is the first of its kind between a prestige beauty company and a television retail destination. The brand will utilize strong visual elements paired with innovative demonstration techniques and will incorporate breakthrough BeautyBank technology. The brand is expected to launch on HSN in July 2008.
BeautyBank, launched in 2004, is the entrepreneurial arm of The Estée Lauder Companies. The first venture for BeautyBank was the strategic alliance to create a new cosmetics department for Kohl’s Department Stores. The company has also collaborated with Coach to launch an exclusive fragrance in Coach freestanding stores. Today’s announcement marks the Estée Lauder Companies first foray into an exclusive deal with HSN.
“The primary mission of BeautyBank is to seek out and create original brands and business opportunities in alternative channels”, said Jane Hudis, President of BeautyBank. “We have watched the amazing transformation of HSN under Mindy Grossman’s leadership and feel she has created a vibrant, dynamic network, with a loyal and expanding consumer base, ideal as the launching pad of our new brand. We are just thrilled to be a key part of her growth plan for HSN and proud to be a part of this new movement.”
HSN is an interactive lifestyle network and retail destination, offering a cultivated assortment of exclusive products combined with the “best of breed” in top brand names. HSN’s beauty assortment, which currently comprises approximately 75 brands, is one of the company’s fastest growing segments.
Mindy Grossman, CEO of IAC Retailing, which includes HSN, said “Beauty is the most demonstrable category in our business and because of that, lends itself particularly well to our array of multichannel assets, including TV, online, podcasts and assorted multimedia. Jane Hudis and the team at BeautyBank fully appreciate the power of this media and by developing a brand specifically for it, have demonstrated once again the innovation and forward-thinking that is BeautyBank’s hallmark.”
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The Company’s products are sold in over 135 countries and territories under well-recognized brand names, including Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series, Origins, MAC (this must have dots in between letters), Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Kiton, La Mer, Donna Karan, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Michael Kors, American Beauty, Flirt!, Good Skin™, Grassroots, Sean John, Missoni, Daisy Fuentes, Tom Ford Beauty, Mustang, Coach and Ojon.
The HSN experience takes shopping to a new level by incorporating experts, entertainment, inspiration, solutions, tips and ideas for its customers. On HSN and HSN.com, customers will find exceptional selections in Beauty (e.g. Clarins, Philippe Chansell’s Ready To Wear, Perlier, Color by Cynde Watson, Wei East); Jewelry (e.g. Heidi Daus, R.J. Graziano, IMAN Global Chic, Jay King, Tori Spelling); Home/Lifestyle (e.g. Colin Cowie, Dyson, Todd English, Emeril Lagasse, Andrew Lessman, Joy Mangano, METHOD, Wolfgang Puck); Fashion/Accessories (e.g. Carlos Falchi, Tina Knowles, SCOOP Style, Sharif); and Electronics (e.g. Garmin, Gateway, GE, Kodak, Magellan, Panasonic, Samsung, Westinghouse). HSN is available across all media including its TV network, the 4th largest cable network in the U.S., reaching 90 million homes, and HSN.com, which ranks in the top 30 of the top 500 internet retailers. HSN, the original shopping network, is an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI).
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. HSN and The Estée Lauder Companies intend forward-looking terminology such as “believes”, “expects”, “may” “will”, “should”, “anticipates”, “plans”, or similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause the two companies’ actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to competition in the beauty and retailing industries, the success of the strategic alliance and those additional factors described in the “Forward-Looking Information” section of Item 7 of The Estée Lauder Companies’ annual report on Form 10-K, each of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference, and other factors as may periodically be described in the two companies’ filings with the SEC.