Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI) has acquired the name, intellectual property, and house file of apparel and home decor catalog Charles Keath from Boca Raton, FL-based The Mark Group. Terms of the deal, which closed at the end of November, were not disclosed. New York-based investment bank Petsky Prunier advised DMSI in the deal.
Chicago-based DMSI, which also owns the Home Visions catalog, was planning to drop about 1 million copies of a 68-page Charles Keath catalog at the end of February, says president/CEO Dave Milgrom. Upscale home furnishings will account for 75%-80% of the merchandise mix, with apparel making up the rest.
“We’re pretty excited” about Charles Keath, Milgrom says. “It’s a good, mature business, and there’s a lot of leverage we can pull from it. Our strength is in the home-furnishing area. We are in the midmarket price range with our Home Visions catalog. Now we have an opportunity to reach more-affluent buyers. But we’ll go slowly with this business for the first few mailings until we get our hands around it.”
For Mark Group, the sale of Charles Keath leaves it with a single (albeit considerable) brand: women’s apparel title Boston Proper. The company sold its Mark, Fore & Strike catalog to management last March. Last year The Mark Group had announced that it planned to close Charles Keath following the holidays unless a buyer could be found.