Jarden Corporation, parent company of Coleman, last week hosted an analyst meeting, which focused primarily on the Outdoor Solutions segment and Coleman’s business strategy moving forward. Jarden acquired Coleman just over a year ago, appointing Gary Kiedaisch as the brand’s new president. JAH saw Coleman as a recognized, quality brand with a strong heritage and knew that it was the largest single brand in the camping and outdoor market, primarily with mass distribution. But they also but felt the brand was suffering from inconsistent positioning, a lack of differentiation, SKU proliferation, and inconsistent execution.

Jarden began a process that involved restructuring the management team, removing redundant personnel, investing in product development, and investing in the sales organization. The company has already hired a new CEO, CFO, VP of marketing, and VP of human resources. Coleman has also promoted two new internal brand VP’s, an internal licensing VP, and an internal legal VP. Finally, they are investing heavily in their sales organization and into engineering and product design for 2006.

Coleman plans to boost top-line growth through implementing customer segmentation strategies, introducing new product, pursuing licensing opportunities, and expanding existing categories. At the same time, Coleman will focus on expanding margins in spite of raw material price increases by creating a “best cost” supply chain and leveraging the existing Jarden sourcing structure. Moving forward, roughly 40% of Coleman product will be internally manufactured and 60% will be outsourced. This is all designed to create 30% gross margins and 12% to 15% operating margins for the company.

Coleman recently concluded a new POP and advertising campaign for their tent line during the spring 2005 selling season that boosted sales by 44% during the period. The campaign integrated TV ads with a $200 dollar per day promotional giveaway and their website. Additional POP signage was supplied to retailers. They also completed a shelf merchandising test in Atlanta, Dallas, and Denver that maintained all Coleman product according to their merchandised planogram and the uplift in the category was 15%.

The two programs combined on a national level are expected to drive more sell-through.