ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Hanover Direct Inc., a catalog retailer with warehouse and distribution operations in the Roanoke Valley, will begin the new year with a change in top management.
Jack Rosenfeld, president and chief executive officer of the Weehawken, N.J.-based company, will step down Jan. 1. He will continue as director emeritus and special consultant.
Hanover's board chairman Alan Quasha, 46, will serve as interim CEO. Quasha also is a director of NAR Group Ltd., which owns 53.1 percent of Hanover's common stock.
According to a company statement, an executive search firm has been hired to locate a permanent CEO.
"While I am now at the point in my life where I am seeking greater flexibility to pursue a variety of personal and professional interests, I am confident in a bright future for Hanover Direct," Rosenfeld said in a prepared statement.
Rosenfeld, 57, joined Hanover in 1970 as executive vice president and became president and a director in 1973. He resigned as an officer in 1977 and rejoined the company as president in 1988. That was the period when the company changed dramatically from operating restaurants to becoming one of the nation's largest catalog merchants.
Hanover opened its 539,000-square-foot Hanover Home Fashions Center on Hollins Road in September. The distribution center ships and receives merchandise for three Hanover catalogs.
Also in the Roanoke area, Hanover owns Tweeds Inc., a European-style women's clothing catalog that it purchased in October 1993. The Tweeds warehouse, now called the Hanover Direct Apparel Center, houses all telemarketing and shipping for the company's women's wear catalogs.
The local facilities together employ 650.
Analysts say it's too early to tell what Rosenfeld's announcement will mean for daily operations of the company, which publishes 15 catalogs offering apparel, housewares and specialty gifts. Hanover also sends four of its catalogs under various names to Sears customers.
"I don't think this presages major changes at the moment," said David Leibowitz, managing director of Burnham Securities Inc. in New York City. Whoever is selected to replace Rosenfeld will bring to the job his or her own ideas for the company, he said.
The move could reflect a need for change. This has been a difficult year for Hanover, which lost $22 million on sales of $528.5 million during the first nine months of 1995, compared with net income of $6.5 million on sales of $542.6 million a year ago. The losses have been due largely to sluggish consumer demand and to increased paper and postage costs. The company discontinued four of its catalogs in the second quarter of 1995, citing poor performance, and trimmed its work force.
The Wall Street Journal contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB