While we had expected the first quarter to be affected by the soft retail environment in the united States, we did not anticipate the disruption the SARS epidemic had on our travel retail business and in certain local markets, namely in Asia and Canada, where business was severely impacted, particularly in April,” said E. Scott Beattie, chairman and chief executive officer of Elizabeth Arden. “The impact of SARS in these local markets and on our travel retail business represented approximately two-thirds of the shortfall for the quarter. In the context of our overall business, however, the sales and earnings shortfall is a modest amount relative to the full year.”While external financial and international factors have dragged down sales and widened losses across the board, the mass channel continues to provide a bright spot for the prestige beauty company. In addition to its own portfolio of Elizabeth Taylor fragrance brands such as White Diamonds, one-third of Arden’s mass business is distributing other vendors’ prestige fragrances. Given the flood of prestige fragrance that has spilled at an increasing rate from department stores to discount retailers and drug stores, Jeff Arnold, senior vice president for the mass channel at Elizabeth Arden, estimates prestige fragrance sales have grown close to 15 percent in the mass channel over recent years.