Lillian Vernon Goes Private
Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 6/1/2003
Rye, NY — Lillian Vernon Corp., the catalog and Internet seller of personalized gifts and items for the kitchen and garden, will be acquired and taken private by Ripplewood Holdings and ZelnickMedia. The company's founder and largest shareholder, Lillian Vernon, 76, will give up her daily responsibilities and become a nonexecutive chairwoman. Vernon began the company at her kitchen table in 1951 with $2,000 of wedding gift money, which she used to buy purses and belts. She placed an ad in Seventeen magazine offering to personalize the products with customers' initials for no charge, and received $32,000 in orders.
