Onecoast spinoff Homestyle to merge with Ivystone
Merger will take place Jan. 1
Gifts & Decorative Accessories -- Home Accents Today, 11/18/2009 7:05:00 AM
HomeStyle, the regionally focused sales agency, which will be spun off from OneCoast, plans to merge with fellow sales agency the Ivystone Group. The merger will be effective Jan. 1, 2010, the same day that HomeStyle’s recently announced separation from the parent company takes effect.
The combined agency will operate two distinct brands: HomeStyle will emphasize home accents and lifestyle products, while the Ivystone Group will focus on the gift market. Together they will have more than 150 field sales representatives along with 20 key account representatives and will operate showrooms in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and Las Vegas.
Doug Cofiell, president of Ivystone, will serve as CEO of the newly combined company. He will be joined by Monica Loving, president of HomeStyle, as well as Nancy Lee, senior vice president of HomeStyle, and Mike Steidle, vice president of Ivystone Group, who will be in charge of key accounts.
In addition, Atlanta-based sales agency DTR will also be merged into Ivystone Group effective Jan. 1. DTR’s Atlanta showroom and sales team will become part of Ivystone Group. A showroom launch in Atlanta is being planned for the January market.
Cofiell told Home Accents Today's sister magazine Gifts & Decorative Accessories that the expansion of the Ivystone brand will “roll out progressively [into the markets across the country] over the course of the year” and is planned to be completed by the close of 2010. Before the HomeStyle merger, Ivystone primarily covered the upper Midwest, the Ohio Valley and the New York/Mid-Atlantic region, and exhibited at the Philadelphia Gift Show, New York International Gift Fair and Chicago Merchandise Mart. For the January markets, there will only be Ivystone branded showrooms in Chicago and Atlanta; the HomeStyle brand will be in use in Dallas and Las Vegas. However, said Cofiell, “Eventually what we’ll do is put an Ivystone gift division in Dallas and on the West Coast through organic growth or acquisition.”
The merger came about as part of an ongoing conversation between Cofiell and Ted Teele, OneCoast CEO and soon-to-be CEO of new technology venture SnapRetail. A casual comment of Cofiell’s about technology provoked a conversation which eventually inspried Teele’s vision of SnapRetail, and when OneCoast decided to divide into three, “once they split the numbers into three, it looked like a more realistic possibility of a merger,” said Cofiell, who declined to comment on the specifics of those financial details.
This is the culmination of a spate of mergers and acquisitions for Ivystone, which over the past several years absorbed fellow sales agencies Drummers Inc., Bickel Sales, Dave Mazzeo & Associates, Sales Partners, H2O Sales and Vandivier Marketing.
Cofiell also said the merger would create new employment opportunities, particularly welcome news in this economic climate. “There will definitely be some new jobs, because we’re not taking out a division anywhere. Literally it’s just add-on. We tend to add a bit more coverage in general, that is usually our trend,” explained Cofiell.
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