A Chat with Eduard Bjorncrantz, Vice President, Direct Marketing at Day-Timers, Inc.

Interview by Matt Griffin

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, September 2006

Catalog Success: When was the catalog established?

Eduard Bjorncrantz: Well, the history goes back to Dorney Printing, which started in 1938. Bob and Bill Dorney were two guys who worked in the business, and they started a mail-order branch of the business selling birthday calendars. In 1942, Dorney Printing was registered as a business, but the Day-Timer business started with a man named Morris Perkin. He was an attorney who invented Lawyer’s Day, which was an appointment, calendar, scheduling, and to-do list system. In 1952, he brought Lawyer’s Day to Dorney Printing to produce. As they built that business, they created other lines such as Accountant’s Day and Engineer’s Day. Eventually the business was bought by Dorney Printing, and Day-Timer was formed. In the 1960s, they formed the Day-Timer time management system. Eventually they were bought by Beatrice Foods, and then acquired by American Brands. One of their subsidiaries was ACCO World Corp. They were an office products division of American Brands. We were then a subsidiary of ACCO. ACCO now is a publicly traded company, spun off of Fortune Brands last year. So we are now a subsidiary of ACCO Brands. We distribute products primarily direct, but also through office product superstores, contract stationers, independent and wholesale office product dealers. The primary product is the DAY-TIMER® planner.