Private Equity Solutions

GUILD.com Appoints President, Posts Record Sales

Private Equity Fund Of Funds By Kristin V. Johnson • 02/02/04 Madison, Wis. By embracing a unique combination of art, the Internet and business savvy, GUILD.com is continuing to gain momentum. The marketer of home furnishings and artisan gifts recently reported a 23-percent revenue increase in 2003 and has appointed a new president.

Michael Baum, formerly chief of operations for Wisconsin Rapids-based Renissance Learning, was appointed to the newly created position of president of GUILD.com. The move will allow founder Toni Sikes to focus on the companys long-term growth strategies as the company seeks to diversify its direct-to-consumer business.

During 2003, GUILD.coms technology platform put new power into its no-inventory business model by automating everything from point of sale to fulfillment. The result was a reported a 10 percent decrease in operating costs from 2002. GUILD.coms IT systems are designed to deliver an efficient distribution channel for the company its artist suppliers.

GUILD.com has undergone a unique transformation, sustaining the dot-com bust and an unsuccessful merger that eventually allowed Sikes to reclaim the company in 2001. GUILD.com was founded in 1985 as The Guild, an art publishing business that offered art books and resource guides for professional-building interior design and was later launched as a Web site in 1999. The move online was aided by a $25-million venture capital investment. The site, like many other dot-coms at the time, was unable to attract enough customers to sustain its growth, which led to the business being sold to a Houston-based company. Sikes has said her focus is now on growing the company slower.

Growth can clearly come through e-commerce, but that will take time. We are now relying on areas that we know while were learning about online business, Sikes told the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.

FF&P Private Equity provides its clients with the opportunity to invest in the equity of high growth, unquoted companies whose objective is to generate attractive returns through the subsequent listing, or trade sale, of these companies. FF&P Private Equity invests typically â5 million to â25 million of equity per transaction and places particular emphasis on backing commercial managers with a track record in successful execution of business plans and enhancing shareholder value. //www.ffandp. equity.

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