Fragrance market to see surge in new items.

The fragrance arena will see a surge in launches this fall, as marketers seek to put some sizzle back into the business.

For the 52 weeks ended February 26 sales of fragrances at food, drug and discounters rose 5.8% to $804.9 million, according to Information Resources Inc. The big winner was Coty Inc.'s Vanilla Fields, which registered a 132.6% jump in sales to $33.8 million (a 4.2% market share). Jovan - another member of the Coty family - also posted a respectable increase, with sales rising 8.4% to $33.3 million (a 4.1% share).

But Coty also saw one of its brands falter a bit: Lady Stetson sales were off a fraction to $22.9 million (a 2.8% share), but Sand & Sable made up for that slip with a …