Shakeup, layoffs at Executive Greetings

Joel Hughes resigned as CEO of b-to-b multititle mailer Executive Greetings on Jan. 22. His resignation comes two weeks after the company cut 99 jobs at its New Hartford, CT, headquarters; its New Britain, CT, telemarketing center; and it Grand Prairie, TX, production plant. The $100 mailer now has roughly 400 employees.

Executive Greetings has been owned by San Francisco buyout firm Behrman Capital since November 1999. Its catalogs include greeting card books Brookhollow and Greenwoods Collection, planner catalog U.S. Diary, human-resources supplies title HRdirect, and customized safety signage marketer SA-SO.

Apparently the company felt the effects of budget-cutting at client companies, some of which cut back on mailing cards to their own clients and vendors this past holiday season. In an interview with the "Waterbury (CT) Republican-American" earlier this month, Hughes said that Executive Greetings' woes are "a combination of the economy and a residual effect of [the] terrorism and anthrax scare" of 2001.