WORLD KITCHEN WANTS TO SELL, DOES ANYONE WANT TO BUY?(WKI Holding Company Inc. to sell World Kitchen Inc.)

HFN: The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, March, 2005 by Porter, Thyra

Byline: Thyra Porter

RESTON, Va.-The decision by WKI U.S. Holdings to hire an investment firm to sell its World Kitchen business has the housewares industry debating who the prospective buyer -- or buyers -- might be.

A key point of the discussion is whether WKI can stick to its stated plan to sell the company as one unit, rather than selling off its famous brands piece by piece.

World Kitchen spokesman Doug Arnold maintained that WKI does not plan at this point to sell the brands separately. Nevertheless, industry insiders said that while many of the brands would be ...