WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Then: After 27 years in business, Highland Heights, OH-based gifts retailer Things Remembered mailed its first catalog in 1998. The wedding-oriented catalog was featured in our April 1998 issue.

Since then: The $363 million Things Remembered continued the catalog. In fact, it now mails around 5 million catalogs annually in three categories: wedding, business, and general consumer, says vice president of marketing Terry Mulhern. Each of the three books mails biannually. Italian eyewear group Luxottica inherited Things Remembered in a 2004 acquisition of eyeglass retailer Cole National.

Now: Combined catalog and Web sales account for about 8.5% of Things Remembered's overall sales, or roughly $31 million; the company would not release actual catalog numbers. Earlier this year, Multichannel Merchant reported that Things Remembered is on the selling block. Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra said on Feb. 1 in a discussion with analysts that the company hoped to sell the gifts cataloger/retailer by June. Things Remembered president Suzanne Sutter would not comment on the company's status, however.