Hanley Wood Acquires Dream Home Source.com - House Plans

Hanley Wood Acquires Dream Home Source.com12/19/2003 - Washington, DC

Hanley Wood has purchased Portland, Oregon based Dream Home Source, Inc., which operates the leading Web site selling stock house plans: dreamhomesource.com. Although it will remain in Portland under the leadership of Dream Home Source founder and CEO Stephen F. Holmes, the acquired company becomes part of the Hanley Wood HomePlanners division.

“The Internet is the fastest-growing sales channel for stock house plans,” said Michael M. Wood, CEO, Hanley Wood, LLC. “Dream Home Source’s cumulative annual growth rate in the past four years is 64 percent. This acquisition, in concert with our own eplans.com site, produces a big and profitable Internet business.” Hanley Wood expects the combined businesses to exceed $11 million in 2004 revenue.

“Dreamhomesource.com sales have grown from 1,000 house plan orders in 1999 to 6,500 in 2003,” says founder Stephen Holmes, “making us the #1 seller of house plans on the Internet. Joining forces with Hanley Wood HomePlanners and their eplans.com site, currently #2 in Internet sales, assures that this strong growth will continue. With the additional resources of Hanley Wood magazines, trade shows, and other Internet sites, Dream Home Source expects to develop an even larger role in the sale of house plans.”

“Search Google, MSN, or AOL for ‘home plans’ and dreamhomesource.com comes up first,” according to Jayne Fenton, president of Hanley Wood HomePlanners. “Our site, eplans.com, also appears on page one of the search results, so now we’ll own the two top sites,” she added. Her company will continue to operate both sites independently maintaining existing offices with separate staffs in different cities.

“This acquisition brings us the #1 company in the fastest-growing sales channel for stock house plans,” added Wood. Five years ago people bought stock plans after seeing them in print in magazines or books. Hanley Wood HomePlanners was the industry leader, selling 20,000 plans each year. Today, 35 percent of the division’s plan sales come from the Internet.

About Hanley Wood

Hanley Wood, LLC is the premier business-to-business media network serving North America’s residential and commercial construction industries. Through five integrated operating divisions, Hanley Wood provides industry-leading advertising, marketing and news/information services and solutions, including award-winning magazines; trade shows and events; marketing communications and brand-activation services; e-media sites and publications; and home plans publishing, distribution and retailing. Hanley Wood HomePlanners is America's leading publisher of home plans, with distribution via newsstand magazines, retail books and eplans.com.

Founded in 1976, Hanley Wood is a $180 million company owned by VS&A Communications Partners III, LP, the private-equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

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Author Notes:

Daryl Marples contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.beautiful-home-101.com. An online guide to home decorating, furniture and improvement decor.