In early August, just four months after joining Emeryville, CA-based SelfCare, president/chief operating officer Mike Tracy left the personal care products catalog to join hardware retail giant Home Depot as senior vice president/general manager, proprietary brands. SelfCare chairman/ CEO Jeff Rose was assuming Tracy’s roles at press time while searching for a successor.
Tracy’s sudden departure from SelfCare left the company without a catalog president for the second time in the past year. His predecessor, Joe Picard, died unexpectedly last year. Rose, whose background is primarily in the healthcare industry, is seeking someone with catalog experience to run the day-to-day operations. “We’re talking to several candidates,” he says. “I’m disappointed Mike’s leaving.” Tracy had been a catalog executive with Disney Direct and the Lenox Collection prior to joining SelfCare.
Whoever takes the post will oversee not only the catalog business but also a spin-off business that SelfCare began testing just before Tracy announced his resignation in July. SelfCare mailed 100,000 solo mailers touting adult undergarments to people who suffer from incontinence. Rose says he hopes to mail 2 million-3 million more solos next year and to take in $25 million in sales from the new business within a few years. The solo offers will be mailed to existing SelfCare customers and to names from rented lists that Rose won’t disclose.