Evine Sales Dive 16% in 1Q, Cans 11 Top Execs As Part of Blood Bath, Back To ShopHQ

We bet Evine is glad its first quarter is over. But the execs who got pink slips we’re sure are not happy. Oh, and the name is also going back to ShopHQ. And there’s going to be Shop Bulldog channel for men, and a new Spanish-language one, too.

It’s a lot to digest.

First of all, the No. 3 home shopping network saw its sales nosedive 16% in the first quarter, to $131.5 million versus the prior year. It also suffered a net loss of $21 million, compared to net loss of $3 million in the prior year.

New CEO Tim Peterman, who rejoined the company earlier this month, wasted no time wielding the ax. In one of the worst corporate-speak euphemisms we’ve ever heard, he called the network’s mass layoffs “a cost optimization event” that will eliminate $15 million in annual overhead costs.

“This event included a 20% reduction in non-variable workforce and the permanent elimination of the following 11 senior executive roles: EVP, Product Sourcing & Business Development; EVP, Managing Director of Brand Development; EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer; SVP, Chief Merchandising Officer; SVP, Chief Accounting Officer; VP, Site Merchandising & Customer Analytics; VP, Customer Operations; VP, GMM Home; VP, Planning; VP, Marketing; and VP, GMM Beauty,” Peterman said in a statement.

As for the name change, here we go again.

“In the second quarter, we are planning to change the name of the Evine network back to ShopHQ, which was the name of the network in 2014,” Peterman said. “ShopHQ is easier to recognize for existing television retailing customers, who spend over $9 billion annually with television retailers in U.S. We believe this more intuitive and recognizable name will allow us to better promote to our network and build our customer file again. Our conclusion from the review of the customer impact data related to the change to Evine in 2015, was that it was not positive.”

Peterman made no excuses for the network’s performance, since he wasn’t responsible for it.

“I am excited to rejoin Evine as its new CEO,” Peteman said. “Although we have only been working as a team again for less than a month, we have already identified the primary causes for Evine’s dramatic financial declines these last few quarters and begun to implement focused remediation actions.”

“In terms of our first quarter, 2019 performance, there is no other way to say it – our performance was poor.”

No sh-t.

“In fact, our performance over the past three quarters has significantly missed expectations, and we must perform better for our shareholders and employees,” Peterman said. “Our plan to reverse our recent negative financial trend is clear, exciting and already in motion.”

This has included hiring Jean Sabatier for the new post of executive vice president, chief commerce officer.

“This is an important change expected to re-establish operating fundamentals in pricing, merchandising, programming and planning,” Peterman said. “Jean rejoins the company after having served as SVP, Sales & Product Planning and Programming from 2008 to March 2017. Most recently, Jean has served as a planning and programming consultant in both Germany and Italy to HSE24, an omnichannel retailer.Prior to joining Evine in 2008, Jean spent 11 years at QVC.”

Peterman added, “We are optimizing the current merchandising mix to drive better customer engagement and immediately improve our merchandising margin and shipping margin. We expect this changed mix will lower our variable costs as a percentage of revenue. This is a cornerstone remediation effort that we anticipate will create an increase of 5% to 7% in the airtime mix of our strongest categories of jewelry, beauty, wellness and watches, and a corresponding decrease of 5% to 7% in the airtime mix of our lowest performing categories of home and fashion.”

Peterman also cited the $11 million in additional working capital it’s freceived via Invicta Watch Group investment transaction.

“We secured the services of Eyal Lalo, as our new vice chairman, and we expect he will help us reignite our vendor community with passion while also helping us find and launch new vendors to strengthen our product assortment in all of our merchandising categories,” Peterman said. “This is also a cornerstone of our remediation effort. In the last three years, Evine has not launched a single brand that has exceeded $10 million in annual revenues. Eyal is already making a difference for us in this area.”

Here’s the new interactive media game plan:

Using our “service fee” business model:

Expanding Evine’s existing 3PL service offering. In 2017, Evine launched its 3PL services business unit and signed its first customer, G-III Apparel Group, in 2018 with brands such as Karl Lagerfeld Paris, DKNY and G.H. Bass.

This year we expect to add customers and expand our service offering to provide a “one-stop commerce services offering” targeting brands interested in propelling their growth using our unique combination of assets in television, web and 3PL services. We will also seek to add services in the AdTech space monetized with advertising and fees.

Using our “advertising & eCommerce” business model:

Shop Bulldog: In Q4 of 2019, we expect to rebrand our existing Evine Too channel into a new omnichannel, television shopping brand called Shop Bulldog (“SB”) that will sell and advertise men’s merchandise and services, and the aspirational lifestyles associated with its brands and personalities.

Although SB will be produced in Minnesota at the corporate headquarters like our ShopHQ channel, SB will not be associated with ShopHQ from a branding and creative perspective. Our unfair advantage in executing this strategy is our existing strength in watches and male customers in television retailing.

LaVenta: In Q1 of 2020, we expect to launch a new omnichannel, Spanish language, television shopping brand centered on the Latin culture to sell and advertise merchandise, services and personalities, celebrating aspirational lifestyles.
LaVenta will be produced in Miami by a standalone Latin management team. We also have a compelling unfair advantage to build this new offering – the top three shopping categories in the Latin culture are beauty, watches and jewelry – our core strengths.

Tags: Evine, Evine first-quarter earnings, iMedia Brands Inc., LaVenta, layoffs, Shop Bulldog, ShopHQ, Tim Peterman