Spiegel (catalog) - New Additions in The Early 1990s

New Additions in The Early 1990s

In 1990 Spiegel acquired First Consumers National Bank, which began issuing credit cards and statements to Spiegel and Eddie Bauer customers. That year, the company enhanced its image as the premier catalog for career women through an advertising campaign that featured actress Candice Bergen, who portrayed a career woman on the situation comedy "Murphy Brown." The campaign also featured a specialty catalog promoted by Bergen, emphasizing the inconvenience of department store shopping and the relative ease of shopping by catalog.

The company began to expand its retail outlet operations based on lines from its catalogs. Spiegel stores included “For You From Spiegel,” which offered large-sized women's apparel, and Crayola Kids, providing a line of children's apparel first launched in 1991. In spite of these innovations, the company's growth stagnated due to national economic recession, and earnings declined sharply in 1991. Slight gains were realized the following year as Spiegel's revenue topped $2 billion. Eddie Bauer performed particularly well, having grown to 265 stores.

In August 1993 Spiegel announced its purchase of New Hampton, Inc., a catalog company specializing in moderately priced women's clothing. Later that year, Spiegel unveiled a new specialty catalog, E Style, featuring a clothing line aimed at African-American women. E Style represented a partnership between Spiegel and Ebony magazine that was formed as a means of targeting an untapped market of Spiegel consumers while also offering African-American women a clothing line more suited to their tastes. That same year, Sears discontinued its Big Book catalog sales operation and Spiegel and other specialty catalog retailers scurried to pick up the leftovers and increase their own share of the market.

Spiegel reported total revenues of $2.6 billion in 1993. Sales at Eddie Bauer stores reached $1 billion that year, bolstered by 30 new outlets. Between Spiegel and Eddie Bauer, 81 different catalogs, with a total circulation of more than 313 million, were distributed in 1993. The company's specialty retail stores also performed well in 1993, generating $840 million in sales.