5th Avenue Channel Corp. has closed or sold almost all of its subsidiaries, and will now focus only on television home shopping.
The firm, which tried everything from retail to the ISP business, has also reduced corporate overhead by 80%, largely through workforce cuts.
The firm’s sole business will now be 5th Avenue Channel Shopping LLC, a home shopping subsidiary started in August. “It’s our best growth opportunity,” said CEO Sandy Goldman.
As part of this restructuring, the company has cancelled its previous purchase of g2A, and will transfer its Wisconsin Wireless Cable Television subsidiary to g2A for $374,000.
It will also sell its EBN subsidiary to Thinking Craft for an initial payment of $100,000, plus a 7.5% royalty on gross sales. And it has closed its retail subsidiary.
On the positive side, it is now building a broadcast studio and a fulfillment/telemarketing facility near its North Miami, FL headquarters. The home shopping unit will have less than 50 people on the payroll during the first phase, Goldman said.
Goldman, who previously worked at Turner Broadcasting and Skymall, described the channel as a “miniature QVC.” The channel, which appears late at night on DirectTV and DISH network, offers upscale jewelry, gemstones and watches.
Last year, 5th Avenue Channel Corp. did $3.5 million in sales. This year, it is projecting revenue of “probably less than a million so far,” Goldman said.
An SEC filing posted on the firm’s Web site reported a net loss of $750,000 for the first nine months of 2001, compared with a $1.9 million loss during the same period last year. The improvement was achieved largely through cost reductions.
Goldman, who was hired in July to turn things around, said the firm was “very disjointed. We were in too many businesses. I felt the one strength we had was the television business.”
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