Jarden Corporation, the new parent company of Coleman, more than tripled first quarter net sales to $521.3 million compared to $158.3 million for the same quarter last year. Coleman was expected to be relatively flat for the year, but the brand experienced 4% organic growth to post sales of $182.9 million with adjusted operating margins of approximately 9.4%. The sales growth was driven largely by new product introductions in tents, sleeping bags, and water recreational items.

It seems that Jarden has a very different vision for Coleman than the brand’s current image. During a conference call with analysts and the media, Martin Franklin, Jarden Corporation chairman & CEO said that the Outdoor Solutions Segment, which is entirely made up of the Coleman business, will be launching over 100 new SKUs and increasing product development spending by 25%.

“And I think on the Coleman side, with Gary Cadash, who is a true product guy, it really is going to drive that harder than it’s ever been driven before, certainly in the last few years at Coleman,” said Franklin. “And that takes time. So we’re focused on those products that will really be in the planograms for ’06 and ’07… We are much more interested in what’s going to happen in ’06 and ’07 to achieve the longer term goals than we are in booking another million dollars of profit in ’05.”

The division has also brought in some new talent. Sam Solomon joined Coleman this week as the CFO of the Outdoor Solutions segment. Solomon’s resume includes positions with Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Kida.

Mr. Franklin has plans to leverage Jarden’s existing consumer goods channels and broaden Coleman’s distribution even further. “A customer does maybe a lot of work with Sunbeam and Oster or some of our other businesses and then says, well why aren’t I doing more business with Coleman? That’s the kind of conversation we had earlier this week,” said Franklin.

Jarden’s corporate integration with Coleman and American Household is well ahead of plan according to Mr. Franklin. The company has specifically identified close to $40 million of annualized savings, well within their stated goal of $5 to $110 million within 3 years. Half of the savings are corporate related, with the balance coming in shipping and freight, commodity purchases, and synergies with Jarden Consumer Solutions.

Mr. Franklin pointed to a new ocean freight contract the company signed that will provide “meaningful cost savings” estimated to be “in the millions.” Jarden will not realize the full impact of many of these savings until 2006, but management believes they will exceed $75 million of annualized savings within the 3 year period.

JAH did not give any guidance for Q2 or the year, preferring to wait until next quarter when they have better visibility into the operations at American Household and Coleman.