MONROE - The Swiss Colony has a new corporate name that will help reflect the company is more than cheese and sausage.
The company announced a new subsidiary, The Swiss Colony LLC, will sell Swiss Colony-branded food items and gifts through catalogs and online. The corporate name was also changed to Colony Brands Inc. The changes were effective Tuesday.
While the name change is mostly administrative, it does signal a new direction for the company.
Currently, the Swiss Colony brand is available only through mail-order. But the company wants to move into the wholesale arena, according to Swiss Colony president John Baumann.
"We want to sell the Swiss Colony-branded items on a wholesale basis," he said. The company is "aggressively pursuing" getting the Swiss Colony brand into grocery and big box markets.
The Swiss Colony is looking for national markets, but it's possible Green County residents could some day see the brand name on local store shelves.
"If there's a local taste for it, we hope we're there," Baumann said.
The name change will also help the company recruit employees from across the country, Baumann said. The company has highly specialized positions that require it to seek talent from out of the area.
The new Colony Brands moniker helps identify the company as the multi-faceted enterprise that it is: The Swiss Colony actually includes about 10 brands, including Seventh Avenue, Ginny's, Montgomery Ward's, Midnight Velvet, and Through the Country Door, among others.
"The Swiss Colony brand name has a great heritage (with a) positive connotation," Baumann said. While many people think of Swiss Colony as cheese, sausage and petits fours, less than 20 percent of the company's business comes from food and food gifts.
Switching the corporate name to Colony Brands "better educates people that there's more to business than that," Baumann said.
- Mary Jane Grenzow
The company announced a new subsidiary, The Swiss Colony LLC, will sell Swiss Colony-branded food items and gifts through catalogs and online. The corporate name was also changed to Colony Brands Inc. The changes were effective Tuesday.
While the name change is mostly administrative, it does signal a new direction for the company.
Currently, the Swiss Colony brand is available only through mail-order. But the company wants to move into the wholesale arena, according to Swiss Colony president John Baumann.
"We want to sell the Swiss Colony-branded items on a wholesale basis," he said. The company is "aggressively pursuing" getting the Swiss Colony brand into grocery and big box markets.
The Swiss Colony is looking for national markets, but it's possible Green County residents could some day see the brand name on local store shelves.
"If there's a local taste for it, we hope we're there," Baumann said.
The name change will also help the company recruit employees from across the country, Baumann said. The company has highly specialized positions that require it to seek talent from out of the area.
The new Colony Brands moniker helps identify the company as the multi-faceted enterprise that it is: The Swiss Colony actually includes about 10 brands, including Seventh Avenue, Ginny's, Montgomery Ward's, Midnight Velvet, and Through the Country Door, among others.
"The Swiss Colony brand name has a great heritage (with a) positive connotation," Baumann said. While many people think of Swiss Colony as cheese, sausage and petits fours, less than 20 percent of the company's business comes from food and food gifts.
Switching the corporate name to Colony Brands "better educates people that there's more to business than that," Baumann said.
- Mary Jane Grenzow