Cuddledown Of Maine

Luxury bedding company Cuddledown Inc. has been acquired by American Capital Ltd.'s Potpourri Group, a specialty catalog company. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. American Capital, a publicly traded private equity firm, said the transaction was completed in December. The deal marks the second acquisition of a Maine-based company by the Potpourri Group in recent months. In June, it acquired FetchDog, a dog accessories catalog and internet site co-founded by actress Glenn Close and her husband, David Shaw.

In a session at last month's National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Orlando, Fla., a panel of cross-channel marketers spanning a wide array of product categories presented tips on how their companies survived the economic pressures of 2009 to see the promise of 2010.

New York, NY, February 4, 2010 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit multichannel direct marketers, today named Robert (Bob) Allen, Interim President & CEO. Mr. Allen, an award winning direct marketing executive, is the former President & CEO of The Vermont Country Store, a multichannel retailer of hard-to-find products. He will assume the title of Interim President & CEO effective Friday, February 5, and be based in DMA's New York office.

During a session at the Sept. 16-18 NEMOA Fall Conference in Mashantucket, Conn., a panel of marketers offered up more than 60 rapid-fire pointers and questions on how to survive in “a risky economy.” The panelists included Jean Giesmann, executive creative director for Stony Creek Brands; Chris Bradley, president of Cuddledown of Maine; Sharon Dunn, president of Duncraft; and Glenda Lehman Ervin, vice president of marketing for Lehman’s.

Environmental groups Catalog Choice and ForestEthics are hot on catalogers’ tails. So are state governments, with 18 do-not-mail bills under review in 15 states as of the beginning of this year. As if catalogers didn’t have enough adversity — with postage on the rise again and the economy on the fall — they can’t afford to take the issue of environmentalism and sustainability lightly much longer. That’s why we’ve devoted the cover section to this hot topic. Consider the most recent events: • On Oct. 9, 2007, relative newcomer Catalog Choice unveiled its free, Web-based service to encourage consumers to opt out of

Merchandise is still king. That was only one of a handful of themes taken from a wide-ranging and spirited session at last week’s NEMOA Spring 2008 Conference in Cambridge, Mass. This particular session included Derrick Egbert, president of New Perspectives; Allen Abbott, EVP/COO of Paul Frederick MenStyle; Jonathan Fleischmann, president/ CEO of the Potpourri Group; and Dana Pappas, COO/CFO of Plow & Hearth. It focused on the pressures of managing a catalog business in today’s uncertain economic times. Below are some of the tips/observations taken from the panelists and audience members. * Merchandise: “It’s the starting point,” Fleischmann said. The need for collaboration

In a session during the recent NEMOA conference in Portland, Maine, that had catalogers ducking for cover, Bill LaPierre, senior vice president of the Millard Group Inc., list brokerage division, provided a veteran’s critique of several catalogs he recently observed and of the catalog/multichannel business at large. His overall finding? Today’s catalogs are boring! LaPierre pulled no punches as he picked apart catalogs, referring to them as “tofu” (lacking in flavor) or “steak” (full of flavor), though he found plenty more tofu than steak. He provided tips primarily focusing on creative design. * Adapt, make timely changes to your catalog. LaPierre praised Cuddledown’s

Sur La Table 163,680 56,295 191 $85 cookware Mokrynskidirect 12/06 9/05 Dog.com 139,829 51,031 174 $115 pet supplies List Locators 9/06 5/05 & Managers Knit Picks 73,502 27,347 169 $60 crafts Walter Karl 6/06 6/05 Cutter & Buck 70,938 30,555 132 $147 men’s apparel Mokrynskidirect 1/07 1/06 Kinsman Co. 27,090 12,695 113 $83 gardening supplies D-J Associates 12/06 9/05 Fannie May Confections 72,173 34,794 107 $36 candy, chocolates Millard Group 11/06 10/05 Leichtung Workshops 20,312 9,958 104 $52 woodworking tools Names & 9/06 7/05 Addresses Orion Telescopes 33,445 16,849 99 $175 telescopes Millard Group and Binoculars 7/06 7/05 Time for Me 141,411 71,958 97 $95 women’s apparel Mokrynskidirect 1/07 10/05 Siegel Display Products 33,569 17,474 92 $300 promotional display products Direct Media 10/06 10/05 Smith & Hawken 140,722 74,971 88 $125 gardening supplies Belardi/Ostroy ALC 11/06 10/05 Redding Medical 13,689 7,642 79 $95 nursing supplies Fasano and 12/06 8/05 Associates Penn Herb Co. Ltd. 26,459 14,837 78 $54 natural remedies Walter Karl 4/06 5/05 MidWest Edwin Watts Golf 328,416 185,448 77 $250 golf equipment Venture Direct 8/06 5/05 Worldwide Staples 3,843,101 2,183,681 76 $250 office products Direct Media 12/06 11/05 Sporty’s Men’s Collection 12,926 7,368 75.4 N/A men’s recreational products Millard Group 1/07 5/05 New England Business 1,114,626 636,766 75 $120 office products MeritDirect Service (NEBS) 12/06 9/05

About Cuddledown Catalog Established: 1973; Bradley bought the company in 1988. Headquarters: Portland, ME Merchandise sold: down products and other high-quality home textiles Annual circulation: about 2 million Number of SKUs: about 3,000 Sales channels: catalog, retail store, wholesale and Internet Why he helped to start a grass-roots campaign among mailers calling for a restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service: Bradley attended a conference in January 2002, and during a presentation given by an executive of a large catalog, it became clear to him that the bigger companies weren’t getting anywhere significant on postal reform. “I have a hard time not doing something about

Though overall sales may have lagged during the 2002 holiday shopping season, a notable increase in online purchases gives catalogers reason to keep their chins (and hopes) up. Consumers spent almost $13.7 billion online during the 2002 holiday-shopping season, marking a more than 24-percent, year-over-year increase from 2001, according to the eSpending Report from The Goldman Sachs Group, Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings. Compounding this is a new survey from The Direct Marketing Association, which found that 78 percent of catalogers increased their holiday Internet sales in 2002, with an average percent increase of 47.3 over the 2001 holiday season. Several catalogers said