Kohl's Corporation (NYSE: KSS) is an American department store chain headquartered
in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. The Company currently operates
957 stores in 47 states. Kohl's mission, as stated in store and online,
is to be the leading value-oriented, family-focused, specialty department store.
Based on 2007 revenue, Kohl's was the 23rd-largest retailer in the United States.
Max
Kohl, who had previously operated traditional grocery stores,
built his first Kohl's supermarket in 1946, first in what would become a southeastern
Wisconsin chain known as Kohl's Food Stores. In 1962, he started his
first department store, also called Kohl's Department Store in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
He positioned Kohl’s between the higher-end department stores and the discounters,
selling everything from candy to engine oil to sporting equipment.
In
1972 the British-American Tobacco Company's (parent of U.S. subsidiary
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.) U.S. retail division, BATUS Inc., bought
a controlling interest in Kohl's Corp., which at the time operated 50 grocery stores,
six department stores, three drug stores and three liquor stores. The Kohl
family, led by Allen and Herb Kohl, stayed on to manage the company. The family
left the management in 1979, and Herb Kohl went on to become a United States
Senator and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. This firm expanded Kohl's presence
from 10 to 39 stores in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. The grocery stores were
eventually sold to A&P in 1983, operating under the name Kohl's II, but the last
of them were later closed in 2003 |
