[Multichannel Merchant] Cataloger and retailer Appleseed’s has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the brand name and customer list of rival cataloger The Tog Shop. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close Aug. 1, were not released.
“We’ve been trying to update and renovate the Appleseed’s brand,” said Claire Spofford, senior vice president of marketing and retail. Company research revealed that Appleseed’s has been moving away slightly from one of the two distinct markets in the marketer’s audience of women 50 and older–a market that The Tog Shop serves. So when the heirs of Tog Shop founder Emory Rylander put the business up for sale earlier this year, Appleseed’s jumped at the opportunity to acquire a chief rival.
According to Spofford, Appleseed’s will mail the acquired catalog under the name Tog Shop by Appleseed’s beginning in September. Packages will be fulfilled by from Appleseed’s Beverly distribution center.
The acquisition does not include the $50 million of Tog Shop’s other assets, which include five small stores in Georgia used primarily to sell overstocks, and the A.B. Lambdin catalog and Web site. The Tog Shop acquired A.B. Lambdin, which has estimated sales of $15 million, in fall 1982; its first catalog mailed in spring 1983.
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