Lillian Vernon Corporation was founded in 1951 as Vernon Specialties by Lillian Vernon, and is a publicly traded company listed on the AMEX exchange.
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Lillian Vernon Corporation was founded in 1951 as Vernon Specialties by Lillian Vernon, and is a publicly traded company listed on the AMEX exchange.
The Lillian Vernon Corporation is a mail- order company that specializes household ,gifts, children's products and gardening and decorative merchandise. One of the trademarks of the company is that they personalize purchased items for free. Among the most noted clients are Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore, Frank Sinatra and Loretta Lynn. Over 90% of Lillian Vernon's customers are women. The average household for these women is about $53,000. Over 80% of sales are made over the holidays.
Even though the company is a public company, it is essentially a family run company, with its founder Lillian Vernon as the CEO, and her son David Hochberg acting as the vice president of public affairs.
In 1956, Vernon Specialties mailed out its first catalog to over 100,000 customers who had responded to magazine ads. The catalog was 16 pages of photographs offering items like signet rings, combs, cuff links, blazer buttons, all of which could be personalized through the free monogramming service offered by the company. The company's early success was largely due to the free monogramming.
By 1987, Lillian Vernon was mailing 80 million catalogs per year. This was the year the company went public with an initial public offering of 1.9 million shares. The proceeds were used to build a state if the art distribution center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That same year the net income for the company $4.4 million. The following year revenue grew to $6.9 million.
In 1990 Lillian Vernon introduced Lilly's Kids catalogs, specializing in items for children. This product line was very successful, and in 1991 sales hit $162 million.
Vernon continued to lead the catalog industry with the introduction of new products while keeping the prices low. After 40 years in business the average price of a product was $17.00, and the average customer order totaled $39.00.