Trans World Entertainment Corp. March 31 announced the departure of CEO Mike Feurer and four other board members as the former parent to home entertainment retail chain f.y.e. (For Your Entertainment) switches focus to e-commerce facilitator eTailz.com. Feurer had been CEO and a director of the board since 2014.
Departing board members include chairman Michael Solow, Jeff Hastings (former head of DVD sales at Paramount), Rob Marks and Michael Nahl.
“Mike’s leadership was instrumental in the brand transformation and recent sale of our f.y.e. business and the financing of etailz,” Solow said in a statement. “In fact, it was Mike’s foresight regarding digital marketplace retailing that prompted the [TWEC] to reinvent itself with the purchase of etailz several years ago. The board thanks Mike for his contributions to the company and wish him the best in the future.”
New York-based TWEC sold f.y.e. in January for $10 million, which included Second Spin used packaged-media stores. It acquired Spokane, Wash.-based etailz.com in 2016 for $75 million.
The latter bills itself as an online marketplace retail expert and software provider using proprietary data to help third-party digital marketplace retailing through Amazon, Jet, Walmart.com and eBay.
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Etailz.com has struggled since the acquisition. In the most-recent fiscal period, etailz lost $1.3 million on revenue of $28.6 million, which was down 35% from revenue of $44.2 million during the previous-year period. Through three fiscal quarters, revenue is down almost 30% at $98 million from $138 million. Operating loss has narrowed to $3.6 million from $9.8 million.
Regardless, TWEC secured an additional $30 million in financing for etailz from investors led by Alimco Financial Corp, together with the previously announced credit facility.
In connection with the financing, Tom Simpson and Jonathan Marcus join a reconstituted board. Simpson was co-founder and executive chairman of etailz up until TWEC’s acquisition in 2016, and currently serves as managing member of the Kick-Start funds.
Marcus is the CEO of Alimco and has over 30 years of experience as an investor, including numerous board roles. The financing will help etailz further develop its software and services offerings, supporting inventory expansion, and expanding into new marketplaces and geographies.
“Combined with our incredible team and partners and the exclusive focus of our board, etailz is well positioned to become the leader in marketplace software and services,” said Kunal Chopra, etailz CEO. Chopra joined etailz in August 2019 following previous experiences at Microsoft, Groupon and Amazon.