Familymeds buys Intelihealth assets

Pharmacy chain Familymeds has purchased the 415,000-name customer list, inventory, and creative assets of the InteliHealth catalog and online store from insurance company Aetna. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition follows Familymeds’ July 2002 entry into cataloging. The 100-store chain mailed 250,000 copies of the debut issue of its Your Health Is Everything catalog, which sells nutritional supplements and healthcare items. It followed with a 200,000-book mailing of a second edition in November. This year Familymeds plans to mail about 2 million copies of the catalog.

Aetna had redesigned the Intelihealth catalog last year, even giving it a new title: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life. The catalog sold health and wellness products.

The spring catalog, which will feature Intelihealth product, will mail to 700,000 Familymeds and Intelihealth customers in late February. Books mailed to InteliHealth buyers will include the cover line “Formerly InteliHealth Catalog.”

Rees Pinney, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Familymeds, says that the company will work to reactivate some of the less recent Intelihealth customers. “We’ll test some of the older cells on the list to see who buys,” Pinney says.

With the acquisition, Familymeds hopes to better target senior citizens. “These customers are the heaviest users of the products we will be selling in our catalog,” president/CEO Ed Mercadante said in a statement.

Familymeds, the 15th largest retail pharmacy chain in the U.S., operates 100 pharmacies in 15 states under the Familymeds and Arrow brand names.