Chicago-based Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), the multititle mailer that acquired Montgomery Ward out of bankruptcy in June 2004, has launched a Spanish-language version of the Montgomery Ward Website (espanol.wards.com). The company has also added an “En Espanol” link onto the English-language Ward site (www.wards.com) to connect them to the new site.
“Montgomery Ward’s top priority has always been serving its customers,” says DMSI president David Milgrom. “In fact, Montgomery Ward was the first retailer to guarantee satisfaction to his customers. Today we know that many U.S. consumers prefer to shop in Spanish, which is one of the primary reasons why we decided to offer a Spanish version of the wards.com Website.” DMSI has employed Spanish-speaking contact center reps for several years.
Established in 1872, general merchandise cataloger/retailer Montgomery Ward had closed its big-book catalog in 1985, filed for bankruptcy in 1997, and gone out of business in 2000. DMSI quietly resurrected the catalog in September 2004 with a 116-page book. In May 2006, Milgrom told MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT that DMSI had been looking to acquire the Montgomery Ward name for some time, but “it was tied up in bankruptcy for a while.” When the bankruptcy was nearly finalized, Milgrom received a call from a trustee asking if DMSI was still interested in acquiring the name, and it acquired the marketing rights in June 2004
DMSI also mails several licensed Sears specialty titles, gifts book Charles Keath, and its core HomeVisions catalog.
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