President Michael Somoroff has exited the Longaberger Co. after six months with the CVSL-owned brand. Longaberger did not elaborate on the decision, nor whether it is looking to fill the position.
“Michael Somoroff is no longer in a management position at The Longaberger Company,” spokesman Russell Mack confirmed to DSN in an email. “The company has a fine team at the Home Office, with Tami Longaberger and a very experienced management group. We also have a wonderful and loyal group of sales field leaders, and we have a strong supporting team at CVSL. So the leadership of Longaberger is in good hands.”
Formerly based in New York, Somoroff is also a photographer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, and in commercials for Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants. He first partnered with Longaberger last April to help the brand reinvent its annual catalog, which now features merchandise alongside stories of the brand and its people in a magazine format, titled Storybook.
The Newark, Ohio-based basketmaker has cycled through seven presidents in the past decade, amid several rounds of layoffs that have reduced the company to a fraction of its former size. Somoroff succeeded Mike Trempe, who left Longaberger last June after a 15-month stint as President and COO. The position had remained vacant in the three years leading up to Trempe’s hire.
Dallas-based CVSL Inc. acquired Longaberger in March 2013, setting in motion its strategy to build a family of micro-enterprise brands. With the addition of U.K.-based Kleeneze this month, CVSL’s growing portfolio now includes eight direct selling companies. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2014, the parent company reported revenue of $75.3 million, up 53 percent over the prior year period, and a loss of $15 million.
