NAPA, CA— Chefs Catalog is making a comeback as a content-driven, immersive e-commerce experience backed by two housewares veterans— Eric Salus and David Sabin.
Salus, former president of Macy’s Home Store and Bon Marche, and Sabin, current Fuller Brush CEO and former Salton chairman, led the acquisition of the Chefs Catalog brand in November 2016 with a small group of investors.
Salus is president and Sabin is chairman of the new Chefs Catalog, set for a soft launch this fall and a full-scale rollout next January as Chefscatalog.com. The new site is slated to feature a wide range of upscale kitchenware, tableware and home entertaining tools that can be curated for shoppers based on the informational content they consume on the new site, Salus said. The site’s initial product offering will concentrate on what Salus described as “strong brands in the better and best categories.”
“David and I have worked with and built substantial brands in housewares,” Salus said in an exclusive interview with HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®.
“Chefs Catalog has a very strong core of customers that came with this acquisition and told us the brand is alive and well,” Salus said about some 11 million past Chefs customers who will be the initial targets of the Chefscatalog.com launch. “People enjoy purchasing from Chefs Catalog. They value the assortment that enables them to cook at home, set the table and entertain.”
Salus said housewares vendors are excited about the plan behind the Chefs Catalog re-launch as an engaging, digital merchandising platform. He is working closely with Emily Milholland, Chefs’ vp/merchandising, to craft the website’s product selection and presentation.
“Vendors believe there is strong need for Chefs Catalog to serve customers who want a one-stop shopping experience online,” Salus said. “We want Chefscatalog.com to become the number-one destination for chefs at all skill levels.”
Marshall Markovitz founded Chefs Catalog in Chicago in 1979, growing into the leading mail-order resource for pro-quality cookware and tools for the home chef before selling the business to Neiman Marcus for $31 million in 1998.
The luxury department store operator sold Chefs Catalog in 2013 to Target Corp., which at the time also acquired Cooking.com. Target announced in November 2015 its would shut Chefs Catalog and Cooking.com and liquidate intellectual property, inventory and other assets.
Off-price retailing specialist Tuesday Morning exclusively managed the closeout of previous Chefs inventory last year.
Salus described plans for a “state-of-the-art” digital Chefs Catalog platform that will offer a “full-circle” customer experience built around food prep, cooking, serving and entertaining. Beyond the traditional kitchenware focus of Chefs Catalog, the new owners plan to widen selections in such categories as wine and coffee accessories.
The new Chefs Catalog site is to include a subscription membership service that will enable deeper access to informative and inspirational content— including recipes, cooking tips, video tutorials, lifestyle trend advice— to help match customers with product options best suited to individual skills.
Experts from the food, wine and coffee industries, for example, will be called on in addition to housewares industry resources to create content for the new site, Salus said. The site also will host shopper clubs for such categories as food, wine and coffee to encourage conversation and experience sharing that can be reflected in how the site develops and presents its content and product selections, Salus said.
“We want the desired experience to lead the selection of product,” Salus said. “The beauty of this is that we will be able to talk to home chefs at all skill levels— from the starter to the creative expert— and give them all the tools, including information, they need to create a great meal at every level.”
Merchandising, operations, technical and administrative professionals are in place to support Chefs Catalog, based here in wine country north of San Francisco.
