Thanks to the wandering business spirit of its originator, Joe Segel, West Chester’s QVC is still the premier television shopping network and has been successfully growing and infiltrating new markets over the last three decades, writes Brian McCullough for the Daily Local News.
Segel, who had already founded and retired from two successful companies by the mid-1980s, found an article about Home Shopping Network, and immediately became intrigued with the idea of selling mass merchandise through television.
“I never heard of the concept before,” said Segel.
He started searching for a building that could handle the necessary production equipment and warehouse space, as well as transmitting needs of a new cable home shopping network. He did not have to look further than the Goshen Industrial Park in East Goshen. It was from there on Nov. 24, 1986 that QVC first went on the air.
Since then, the company has grown to become an $8.7 billion business with broadcast operations on three continents. Meanwhile, QVC’s e-commerce division has been growing, and has accounted for $3.9 billion of the company’s total annual revenue for last year.
Read more about QVC’s three decades in the Daily Local News here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of QVC here.
