ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 19, 1995 TAG: 9512190058
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Salem-based Ortho-Vent Inc., a mail-order shoe subsidiary of Home Shopping Network, has been sold to a Wisconsin shoe company.
Mason Shoe Co. of Chippewa Falls, Wis., said Monday it has taken over operation of the business, which sells Stuart McGuire shoes for men.
Mason already operates five mail-order catalogs and five retail stores, all in the Midwest.
All telemarketing and order-fulfillment operations will move from Salem to Wisconsin, said Matt Sullivan, Mason's catalog manager. Mason will continue to sell the shoes under the Ortho-Vent/Stuart McGuire name.
Home Shopping had announced in August that it wanted to sell Ortho-Vent, which company officials said no longer fit the company's focus on television and catalog retailing.
The deal between Mason and Home Shopping was completed this month, Sullivan said.
No one at Home Shopping's Clearwater, Fla., headquarters was available Monday to talk about the sale.
Managers at the company's Salem operations declined to comment.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The company has not said whether the transition will affect any jobs at the Salem operations, which include a warehouse and distribution center for the company's television retailing operations. The Salem facilities employ about 450.
The Stuart McGuire Co. was founded in 1967 as an outgrowth of the Ortho-Vent Shoe Co., which started in 1904 as the Brand Shoe Co. It was sold to Home Shopping in 1986.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB