Palm Coast Data's Taschler Steps Down

The executive vice president and COO to 'pursue other interests.'

By Bill Mickey
Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Mike Taschler, Palm Coast Data's executive vice president and COO, is leaving the company. His last day will be October 31.

According to the company, Taschler was the executive in charge of the integration of the Kable Fulfillment Services operation into PCD. The process unified the two brands under PCD and centralized operations in Palm Coast, Florida. The project took about two years to complete. Palm Coast bought Kable in 2007 for about $92 million.

"Mike was instrumental in driving the multi-state unification of magazine subscription, membership and direct mail fulfillment operations to our Palm Coast campus," says PCD president and CEO Mike Duloc in a prepared statement. "He designed key operational enhancements that have optimized both performance and costs—which has enabled aggressive investment into strategic initiatives such as dedicated business units for direct mail and membership associations, as well as innovation in e-commerce, mobile technology, and digital processing."

The announcement detailing Taschler's move says he's leaving to "pursue other interests" and the company declined to offer any further details.

Update: PCD announced Wednesday, 10/19 that it has already filled Taschler's position, hiring Palm Coast Data alum Rory Burke as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He will oversee operational and client relations functions and report to Duloc. Burke was previously an executive vice president with PCD, and most recently served in consultative and sales roles for CDS Global.

Taschler is the second high-ranking executive to leave the company in recent months. Duloc took over as CEO in early August when John Meneough stepped down after 10 years with the company. Meneough will be staying on in an advisory capacity until next April.

Prior to taking the CEO slot, Duloc was president and CEO of Kable Media Services and was previously COO of Kable Fulfillment Services.

PCD's parent company AMREP reported a net loss of $279,000 on revenues of $21.5 million for its first quarter fiscal 2012—which ended July 31, 2011—compared to a $498,000 net loss for the same period last year. The Media Services Operation—AMREP also manages a real estate portfolio—dropped about 12 percent in revenues to $21,377,000 when compared to first quarter 2011. Partially offsetting the decline was a $2.9 million decrease in operating expenses for the first quarter, mostly as a result of efficiencies from the integration of Kable into Palm Coast.

The first-quarter losses are on the heals of an 18 percent drop in full-year 2011 Media Services revenues to $95 million when compared to 2010. This followed a 16 percent drop in revenues for the unit from 2009 to 2010.

In June, Palm Coast formed a new Membership Business Unit to build business among membership-based organizatations. The company signed Newsweek as a fulfillment client in January. PCD works with approximately 500 titles for 125 clients. Its subscription fulfillment business represented about 77 percent of fiscal 2011 revenues for the Media Services group.