Why are Elizabeth Arden products not sold at Wal-Mart in China? (RDEN 4Q05 conf call quotes)

Elizabeth Arden (ticker: RDEN) sells fragrances, skin treatments, and cosmetic products worldwide. During management's Q4 2005 earnings results conference call Chairman and CEO Scott Beattie discussed his company's progress and prospects in China:

On the Asian Market

....a very strong travel retail business in the Asian market which is accelerating extremely quickly.

On the China Market

....currently have 60 stores in China….our business in the last two years has grown at over 50%. We expect that this growth to continue for several years to come. And the opportunity for our brand, the Elizabeth Arden brand and some of our other fragrance products I think is fantastic.

On Selling at Wal-Mart (ticker: WMT) in China

....because of the very low price points of the products that are sold, and there is a very high percentage of food type mix within those Wal-Mart stores. So many of our products, even the products like fragrances that we sell to Wal-Mart in the U.S., the price points aren't really appropriate for that market yet. But over time -- and I think I don't want to go into all of our strategy and what we want to do in that market at this time -- but we've got a plan in place, a business plan in place there that will include the development of our business similarly to what we've done in the U.S. There will be a lot of differences, but the overall philosophy and opportunity there is the same.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

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