September 18, 1998

Delia's Will Buy Fulcrum Catalogs

Teen cataloger Delia's Inc., New York, said this week that it will acquire some of the assets of Fulcrum Direct, Rio Rancho, NM, which filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code on July 30. Delia's will pay $4.75 million for assets that include trademarks and mailing lists for the Zoe, Storybook Heirlooms, Playclothes, After the Stork and Just for Kids catalogs. That price includes $2.4 million of selected Zoe and Storybook Heirlooms inventory. In addition, Delia's agreed to assume some customer refund liabilities from Storybook Heirlooms and will relaunch that catalog in the spring using the Storybook Heirlooms management team. Storybook Heirlooms sells upscale outfits and accessories for special occasions to girls ages 6 to 12. It generated more than $30 million in revenues in 1996, its last full year of independent operation before its sale to Fulcrum Direct in July 1997 for $15 million. Delia's president/CEO Stephen Kahn said the total purchase adds 5 million names and 1.6 million customers to Delia's database, nearly doubling it. "We believe that the acquired database is the most valuable consumer database in the kids' market in the country," he said. The Storybook Heirlooms catalog was particularly complementary to Delia's business. "We expect Storybook's management to relaunch the Storybook Heirlooms catalog successfully as well as to provide additional support to Delia's in a variety of direct marketing efforts, including those directed at the 'tween market," he said, defining that market as children ages 8 to 12.