The new brand will continue to sell online
Richline Group has acquired Silpada, the home sales jewelry company.
The deal includes the company’s brand names, designs, and select inventory. The new company will focus exclusively on sterling silver, said Richline CEO Dennis Ulrich in a statement.
While Silpada has traditionally been marketed through home sales, Richline chief marketing officer Mark Hanna isn’t sure that will be continued.
“It would be difficult for us to pursue that business,” he says. “We are not ruling out anything, but we are still learning that business. We are in the process of reaching out to the 19,000 original reps. We are going to learn from them the plusses and minuses of the system. We will study that and do substantial research.”
The new brand will continue to sell online, making it one of only two Richline B2C brands (Gemvara is the other).
Hanna thinks Silpada also has “good potential” as a B2B brand.
“The biggest asset here is the Silpada brand name,” Hanna says. “The consumer recognition is good. There is a lot to preserve here.”
Founded in 1997 by two stay-at-home moms, the company’s revenues once topped $200 million. In 2010, Avon Products bought it for $650 million. Three years later, its founding families bought it back for a fraction of that price. The original business shut down three years after that, with the owners saying it had been unprofitable since the Avon purchase.
As a result of this purchase, the two founding families will no longer be involved in the brand, which will be run out of Richline’s New York City office.
Richline will continue honoring the Silpada Lifetime Guarantee that was in place prior to June 1.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Richline is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s holding company.
(Image courtesy of Richline Group)
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