As we learned in our conversation with Tony Chivari, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Marketing and Customer Insights for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, one of his company’s strengths is that it operates as a family of brands that appeal to a range of consumers. It looks like that family is about to grow by one.
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, which provides gifts designed to help customers express, connect and celebrate, has reported that it was the successful bidder at an auction held on July 31, 2019 for certain assets of the gourmet food business of the FTD Companies, including the Shari’s Berries brand, which were previously operated by Provide Commerce LLC, a division of FTD.
The bankruptcy court will consider approval of the transaction at a hearing to be held on August 9, 2019. The Company will acquire the assets through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries and plans to close the transaction soon after the hearing, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Chris McCann, CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, said, “We are very excited to have been the winning bidder for the Shari’s Berries brand, and we are looking forward to getting final court approval and closing the transaction later this month. Shari’s Berries is a leading provider of dipped berries and other specialty treats with strong brand awareness and a 15-year heritage in the gourmet gift industry. We see Shari’s Berries as an excellent fit in our ‘all-star’ family of brands and the acquisition will help further expand our authority position as a leader in the growing gourmet food and gift baskets space.”
The company’s winning bid of $20.5 million includes the acquisition of more than 450 domain names, copyrights, trademarks, customer data, phone numbers, and other intellectual property. McCann said that the company plans to gradually integrate the Shari’s Berries brand into its operating platform and to work to reposition the brand as a premium provider of dipped berries and other gourmet treats.
He said, “As with all of our brands, we will focus on driving strong top and bottom-line performance for the Shari’s Berries brand by enhancing the overall customer experience and leveraging the unique capabilities of our business platform to improve its operating efficiency.”
1-800-FLOWERS.COM plans to offer further details regarding the planned acquisition of the Shari’s Berries brand on August 22, 2019, when it provides guidance for its fiscal 2020 year as part of a press release and subsequent conference call announcing its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and full year results.