For Blair Corp., growth is a juggling act. The catalog must attract the lucrative baby boomer market, while at the same time avoid alienating its core older customer base.
John Zawacki, president and CEO of Warren, PA-based Blair, told attendees at the New England Mail Order Association conference on Friday that the company’s average customer is in her mid-60s. While those customers are important to survive, he noted, the company must generate new business from younger buyers who may consider Blair as more their mother’s, or worse yet grandmother’s, style.
The Internet is one way Blair has attracted boomer buyers; the average age of its Web customers is 15 years younger than the catalog buyers.
The company’s Crossing Pointe catalog is also geared toward a younger shopper than the core Blair catalog. Zawacki said Crossing Point purposely is not promoted as a Blair spinoff. In fact, it was only recently that the two catalog’s e-commerce sites were even linked.
To also further growth, Blair — which has annual sales of over $570 million — is being “quietly proactive” about looking for acquisition opportunities, said Kemp.
The company was founded in 1910 as a mail order business selling black raincoats to ministers and funeral directors. And since the style is now trendy, at least one version of the somber garment is always in the product mix, noted Kemp.
The NEMOA spring conference at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA concluded on Friday.
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