December 21, 2007

Dear Yankee Candle Fundraising Customer,

The 2007 Fall and Holiday fund raising season has proven to be the most challenging in the history of GBI and Yankee Candle. We have experienced significant order fulfillment and customer service problems. On behalf of the entire Yankee Candle organization, I want to apologize for the significant hardships this may have caused you and your customers.

Despite our plans to ship all orders complete and on time, as we did during the spring 2007 season, several factors led to the problems we have experienced. We consolidated our order fulfillment along with the Yankee Candle Catalog business in a new distribution facility in Ohio. The combination of a new facility start up, new computer systems, and increased orders versus the previous year resulted in the delays and service problems you experienced. In addition, our order tracking systems and delivery date estimates with our shipping company partners have proven to be inadequate and often inaccurate. Our ability to respond to the tremendous quantity of phone and Email inquiries has exceeded our capacity. I offer this not as an excuse, but as an explanation. In the end, whatever the causes may be, Yankee Candle and I take full responsibility for disappointing you this season.

I can assure you the entire Yankee Candle team has been working tirelessly to correct and resolve these problems. Our sales and customer service teams have done everything they could under the circumstances to provide the best information available on the delivery of orders. Our senior management team, including myself, have been working in the Ohio distribution center packing orders to get our product to you and your groups. We clearly recognize we have disappointed many of our loyal customers and assure you we understand we have made mistakes.

Our team’s efforts have been focused on shipping all orders and backorders. If you have any damages or missing products and have not already submitted a claim please forward any outstanding claims to your sales representatives.

We are confident that we can fix the distribution and system problems for the future. Yankee Candle products and our fund raising program have a successful proven track record. We hope that we will have the opportunity to regain your trust and earn back your business for coming fund raisers. Either way, we wish you all the best in your fund raising endeavors.