CCA To Enter Agreement With Denise Austin

CCA Industries Inc. has entered into an exclusive license agreement with fitness guru Denise Austinfor a new signature brand of skin care products and cosmetics.

Ms. Austin is the producer and star of daily fitness shows on the Lifetime television network and hassold more than 20 million videos and DVDs in the U.S. A member of the video Hall of Fame, Ms.Austin writes a monthly column in Prevention Magazine and has authored numerous books on heathand fitness. In 2002, President Bush appointed Ms. Austin to the President’s Council on PhysicalFitness and Sports (PCPFS).

“The Denise Austin skin care brand is a perfect fit for our previously-announced exclusive formulascontaining green tea developed with CCA in conjunction with Dr. Stephen Hsu of the Medical Collegeof Georgia,” said David Edell, chief executive officer of CCA Industries. “Dr. Hsu is one of the foremostexperts on the properties of green tea extract for its use in health and anti-aging skin care products.”

Henkel Posts Lower-than-Expected GainsHenkel KgaA, Frankfurt, Germany, reported a lower-than-expected 10.4% gain in second-quarterearnings. Executives said growth from the acquisition of Dial Corp. was offset by weak Europeandemand.

“We confirm our profit and earnings guidance for 2004 and expect our business outside Europe tobe the engine for growth,” insisted Ulrich Lehner, chief executive of Henkel.

“Due to further weakening of the important Western European laundry care and body care businesses, we downgrade our recommendation from add to hold,” analysts at Dresdner Klenwort Wasserstein wrote in a statement.

The addition of Dial, where sales rose 4%, helped boost group revenues by a currency-adjusted 19.2% to $3.38 billion, but the underlying rise was just 1.7% once the acquisition had been factored out.”Despite the weak performance in the home care division, we believe that the stock has been overly punished for the sales warning,” said HSBC Trinkhaus and Burkhardt analyst Christoph Rehbach, citing mixed results. Henkel stock, which had lost 15% since July’s change in sales guidance, has declined 1.9% to $70.44 versus a 1% drop in the blue-chip DAX index.