Montgomery Ward brand name is back as an Internet and catalog retailer

CHICAGO — There is life after death — at least in retail.

Five years after Montgomery Ward went out of business, its brand name has been revived on the Internet, and there's even a 21st-century version of the Wards holiday catalog that was standard fare in American households for decades at this time of year.

Without stores, this Wards is a bit different from the chain that thrived for more than a century until liquidating in 2001 after Wal-Mart and other discounters and department stores left it badly out of fashion.

But Direct Marketing Services Inc., the catalog marketer that acquired the Wards name out of bankruptcy in 2004, insists it is faithfully carrying on a legacy that dates to 1872 when Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first mail-order business.

Many of Montgomery Ward's old vendors and products and several former employees are part of the new Wards, which sells 46,000 items online ranging from rugs to recliners and home electronics to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer yard art. And David Milgrom, the private firm's president and founder, notes that the cataloger shares Wards' Chicago roots and retail industry experience.

"As a retailing pioneer, Mr. Ward would be pleased to know that the tradition of excellence which he began continues in an exciting new way with Wards.com", the Wards Web site proclaims.

Still, it's the famous brand name that the direct marketer is counting on most to draw shoppers. In the fierce competition among retailers, industry experts say a trusted brand — even a heretofore dead one — can be half the battle.

"People are always open to believing that however wayward one got, even for a retailer, given proper management you can go back on the right track," said George Rosenbaum, chairman of Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, a Chicago-based retail consulting firm. "Wards was a good enough name, so there's probably a good amount of hope or willingness to believe that they've come back."

Sue Montoya, a longtime Wards devotee who was "devastated" when her favorite chain shut down, says she was thrilled to get a catalog from the resurrected business this year. She promptly placed an order.

"I am sure that if my dear mother was still alive today she would be just as excited, as she is the one who introduced me to the Wards tradition," the 56-year-old Montoya said from her home in Denver.

Wards isn't the only moribund brand to get rehabilitated under new ownership.