Cataloger Spotlight: Lillian Vernon

Direct Holdings bailed out in May 2006 and sold Lillian Vernon to investment firm Sun Capital Partners, which installed former Miles Kimball CEO Mike Muoio to turn the company around. Muoio quickly sprung into action, and brought founder Lillian Vernon back into her familiar day-to-day role as chief merchant to cut SKUs, lower prices and eliminate ineffective catalog editions. Muoio says he’s planning on a 20 percent increase for the upcoming year.