Fingerhut Companies, Inc., Minneapolis, has acquired a 28% stake in Empire Direct, a Hispanic direct marketing company based in New York. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, although it allows Fingerhut to increase its equity stake to a majority interest.
Empire Direct’s holdings include EmpireCard, an issuer of MasterCard credit cards, Direct Furniture, a retailer of furniture through in-home consultations, and the Empire Club general merchandise catalog. The Empire Club catalog operates a bilingual call center in New York and sells jewelry, electronics and other merchandise to 30,000 current customers. The majority of furniture and catalog sales are financed using the Empire MasterCard.
“Empire Direct will help increase Fingerhut’s presence in the Hispanic market,” said Fingerhut’s vice president and general manager of Hispanic business Rafael F. Saldana in a statement. “We are especially attracted to Empire Direct’s database of 1.1 million Hispanics to support our recent Hispanic marketing initiative.”
Network
