OrderTrust ceases operations

OrderTrust, a provider of marketing and order management services to online retailers and catalogers, has ceased operations, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Litle said today.

Litle, who founded the company in 1995 and had served as chairman for the last three years, returned to an active executive position as CEO in January.

The company issued the following statement late Thursday afternoon:

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"I came out of semi-retirement in January at the urging of key members of the management team." said Litle, "At that time, we were facing major challenges with Product Market Place, one of our strategically critical services." After losses associated with Product Market Place proved to be insurmountable, the service was discontinued.

"As we investigated the losses associated with Product Market Place and other operations, we discovered unreported liabilities and inaccuracies in our financial information that resulted in a negative impact on cash of more than $10 million” said Litle. "As the facts became known to us over the last few months we sought every possible remedy, but we could not resolve enough of those liabilities to attract investment and to continue doing business.

"Had we known the full extent of those hurdles in January, we would certainly have acted differently at the time, and would have advised our key investors accordingly," says Litle, who is a minority investor in OrderTrust.

Litle, who will remain active in the direct marketing industry, has said a skeleton staff will be maintained at OrderTrust until the disposition of current clients has been resolved in an orderly fashion.

"The company had made impressive progress this year in its marketing, operations and software development" Litle reported. "I was impressed with the renewed dedication of our staff and the results of their efforts in developing both current and planned services. It is just unfortunate that past mis-steps and miscalculations took us too far off course to come back to solid ground in time."