Blair Corporation Completes Sale of Credit Portfolio to Alliance Data

Blair Corporation, a national multi-channel direct marketer of women’s and men’s apparel and home products, and Alliance Data Systems Corporation, a leading provider of transaction services, credit services and marketing services, today announced the completion of the sale of Blair’s credit portfolio to Alliance Data’s industrial bank subsidiary. The agreement between the two companies was announced on April 27, 2005, with the closing of the transaction occurring on November 4, 2005. Gross sale proceeds were $166.2 million, of which Blair will use $143 million to repay debt primarily incurred in association with its August 2005 tender offer of 4.4 million shares.

As previously disclosed, under the terms of a 10-year Program Agreement, Alliance Data will provide a fully-integrated private label credit program for Blair’s catalog and Web brands, including Blair and Irvine Park. Services that will be provided by Alliance Data include account acquisition and activation, receivables funding, account authorization, statement generation, marketing services, remittance processing and customer service functions.

“Blair Corporation was founded on the commitment of providing exceptional service to all of our customers,” said John Zawacki, Blair President and CEO. “The tools and services that our customers can now access through Alliance Data will increase the ease and convenience of purchasing apparel and home fashions from Blair. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with Alliance Data.”

Ivan Szeftel, President of Retail Services for Alliance Data, noted that as the organizations work together, Blair will see its customers’ brand loyalty strengthen. “We, like Blair, view private label credit as an effective tool for recognizing and rewarding our best customers, while increasing sales and loyalty. We are excited to be working with Blair by providing these valuable services, and believe they will play an important role in growing its Web and catalog business.”