Less than two weeks after Lillian Vernon Corp. was sold to Sun Capital Partners, MULTICHANNNEL MERCHANT has learned, employees were told that its White Plains, NY, headquarters would close. The entire operation is moving to Virginia Beach, VA, where the cataloger already its distribution center.
Mike Muoio, the recently named president/CEO of Lillian Vernon, says the plan calls for the company to vacate its White Plains space by Oct. 31. About 40-50 employees–roughly half of the White Plains staff–will make the move to Virginia Beach.
“Really this is about expense control and being more efficient by being all together under one roof,” Muoio says. “It makes a lot more sense to move headquarters down to Virginia than for us to move the DC up to New York.”
The remaining employees who will not make the move will be paid through the end of the year plus their severance, he says.
According to Muoio, there’s about 1million sq. ft. of space in the Viriginia Beach facility, “so there’s plenty of room.”
The move ends the company’s 55-year association with New York’s Westchester County. Founded in Mount Vernon, NY–the city that inspired that catalog’s name–Lillian Vernon moved to nearby New Rochelle in 1993, then to Rye in 1998 and to the current location in fall 2004.