Anglo saviour revives mail-order business

Investment group Evolution Holdings, which rescued Anglo from administration earlier this month, is planning to focus on Silica?s mail-order business as well as SDL in an attempt to revive the group?s fortunes.

The decision marks a shift away from Anglo, which previously put more emphasis on its retail stores. One industry source said: ?It appears to be going back to the pre-Anglo model where Silica mail order and SDL were the main cash generators and Silica itself was of secondary importance.?

According to Martin Hodgson, managing director of Evolution, the mail-order and catalogue business will be ?an important springboard for future development?.

He said: ?We?ve got a huge database and the doyenne of the direct marketing industry, Colin Lloyd, helping us, so we intend to make a really big splash.?

But industry rivals were dismissive. David Atherton, owner of mail-order company Dabs Direct, said: ?It would seem to me that this management team has been involved in mail order before. We didn?t find Silica to be a threat then, so we don?t expect to now.?

IBM is still holding back from supplying SDL, despite the change in ownership. Larry Smith, IBM consumer business manager, said: ?Whether we still use it depends on its financial standing. It has a lot of City people in there but we need to feel comfortable with it.?