Positive Holiday as Consumers Have 'Frugality Fatigue': Jarden CEO
By: The consumer appliance maker Jarden, which sells its products to big mass merchants, including Wal-Mart and Target , expects to see positive trends this holiday season.
"I talk about frugality fatigue. People are tired of sitting too much on the sidelines," Martin Franklin, CEO of Jarden , told CNBC's "The Strategy Session" on Friday.
"But the buying behavior is still going to be driven towards finding value. People are very careful of how they spend their money today, but they are prepared to spend if they see something they think is a good value proposition," Franklin said.
And with very little produced outside of China today, the CEO thinks there will be a shift away from that trend, because "they have the fastest growing middle class in the world today—they need to satisfy that demand."
"They are going to have to produce more goods for their own consumers. And what that's gonna do is put pressure on importers like ourselves and anybody else who is bringing imports into the US," he said.
For that reason, Jarden's strategy is to avoid putting all of its eggs in one basket. Instead, the company manufactures items in various countries throughout the world, including Mexico, Costa Rica and Latin America.