Luxury multichannel marketer Gump's said yesterday that it is being acquired from Hanover Direct by an investment group. The deal is expected to be completed in March.
Gump's operations include a flagship store in San Francisco, a catalog and a Web site.
The group acquiring Gump's includes venture capital firms WaldenVC and Stone Canyon Venture Partners as well as private investment firm Sand Springs Holdings.
Jed Pogran, president of Gump's, will continue to lead the company.
As part of the transaction, Keystone Internet Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hanover, will provide merchandise fulfillment services to the new owners for 18 months after the closing.
Hanover also said that it will move its executive offices and consolidate its New Jersey operations under one roof at its Weehawken facility. The company will close its Edgewater, NJ, facility by May 31. Hanover also will relocate its International Male business to the Weehawken address and will incur a one-time charge of about $900,000 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004 involving the relocation.
Hanover reported this month that it was notified by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is conducting an informal inquiry into the company's financial results and financial reporting since 1998. Hanover has been in financial difficulty since announcing in November that it overstated revenue in its financial statements going back to 1999 due to an accounting error. The company also was delisted recently by the American Stock Exchange.
In addition to Gump's, Hanover markets home, apparel and gift items via catalogs and the Internet under brand names such as Domestications, The Company Store, Company Kids, Silhouettes, International Male and Scandia Down.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
