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Dillard's
Dillard’s is a large department store chain located in Little Rock, Arkansas in the United States of America. It is a major chain store that is located in 29 states with more than 330 stores all over the country. It is very popular in the South, particularly in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. However, it is becoming more and more popular in the Midwest as well.
History
In 1938, William T. Dillard started the first department store in Little Rock, Arkansas, and even today, its corporate headquarters are located there. It is located near the Riverdale part of Little Rock and the store still remains in the hands of that family. Many of its executives and directors are part of the Dillard family.
Initially William Dillard was a minor partner in Wooten & Dillard, after selling his Nashville store. This was located in Texarkana, Arkansas and remained there till 1956. In 1956, he was the leader of an investment group that invested and acquired a Mayer & Schmidt store in Tyler, located in Texas. This store came to be called Dillard’s Mayer & Schmidt until 1974. In 1960, Dillard bought Brown-Dunkin, a failing store, in Oklahoma. This was a great success, and in 1963, he got hold of the Joseph Pfeifer store in Little Rock, Arkansas itself. This resulted in the shifting of headquarters to Little Rock, and in 1969, Dillard’s went public on the New York Stock Exchange as the Dillard’s Department Store Inc.
After this, Dillard’s Department Store grew very rapidly and became very popular in the 1970’s. They expanded thoroughly with the help of the new malls developing in Texas and in 1971, acquired several Fedway shops. In 1974, they bought the Leonard Stores in Fort Worth in Texas. In the same year, all the acquired shops, Brown-Dunkin, Pfeifer, Blass and Mayer & Schmidt were renamed Dillard’s Department Stores.
In the 1980’s, they continued to expand rapidly. They rented the redundant Lowenstein’s Chain in Memphis, Tennessee, and also acquired twelve Stix, Baer and Fuller stores in 1984. In late 1984, they also bought two stores from Dayton Hudson: Diamond and from John A. Brown, in Arizona and Oklahoma. Another twelve stores in Kansas and Missouri were acquired for H.C. Macy & Co.’s Midwest division and the Hemphill White Company was bought in West Texas by Dillard’s. They continued to expand in 1987 with the purchase of 26 Joske’s stores and the purchase of Cain-Sloan Chain in Nashville, from the Allied Stores Corps. This gave them ideal locations in many malls all over Texas and Arizona, thus preventing their competitors to acquire real estate. The next year they bought the Millard & Paine chain in Lincoln, Nebraksa, and an important part of the company, The Higbee & Co. in Ohio. In 1989, they bought the D.H. Holmes Company that brought them 20 units in Louisiana and Arizona.
In the 1990’s, they acquired the Ivey’s Chain in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. They also got the 8 Florida Gulf Coast stores from Maidon Blanche & Co. and the remaining part of The Higbee & Co. This was followed by the acquisition of five Horne’s stores in Ohio and several stores from Hess’ chain, E.M. Scarbrough stores, Thalhimer’s stores, Lord & Taylor, and Belk-Lindsay stores all over the country. Later on in 1997, they acquired ten Mervyns buildings in Florida, seven Proffit’s stores in Virginia, and three Macy’s stores in Texas.
The expansion through acquisition culminated in a deal that helped them purchase Mercantile Stores. With this, they acquired several other chains like Bacon’s, Castner-Knott, Glass Block, J.B. White, Joslins, Lion, Maison Blanche, McAlpins, Roots and The Jones Store. They sold 26 previous mercantile stores to May Department Stores Co. and Saks Inc. They traded seven of their Belk stores to them for nine stores in Virginia and Tennessee. After this, Dillard’s stopped expanding through acquisition although they did purchase eight Montgomery Ward and four ZCMI stores. However, they are expanding otherwise, and have started buying locations in non-mall areas, the largest of all being in Scottsdale Shopping center.
With increased competition and comparison between discounts giant Kohl’s and the retail giant Federated Department Stores, Dillard’s feels the need for revitalization and rethinking of its strategies. It concentrates on catering to middle and upper-middle income women and focuses on apparel and home furnishings. It is dedicated to quality and customer satisfaction and has a long history of ethical and fair conduct.
Code of Conduct and Ethics
The company integrates two the International Labor Organization’s conventions in its code of conduct for merchandise sourcing. However, it has no strict labor monitoring mechanisms in place. This has attracted the attention of high profile shareholders and has resulted in the company being cited in a number of labor abuses, discrimination suits and racial profiling towards customers. Dillard’s shareholders have also demanded that the company disclose its code of conduct, updates on implementation of monitoring, but the company has refrained from doing so. Dillard’s has also resorted to hiring armed off duty police officers for security since 1994 and several people from the minority community have been shot dead by these forces. Dillard’s was also involved in a cases filed by customers for negligence of the management. The BusinessWeek named Dillard as the worst corporate board in 2002
As of January 2007, the total sales is $ 7, 810.1 million and the 1-year sales growth is 1.3%. The 2007 net income is $245.6 million and 1-year net income growth is 102.2%. As of 2007, the number of employees employed by Dillard’s is 51, 385 and the 1-year employee growth for the year 2007 is 1.3%.
Languages
English
Address
- 1600 Cantrell Rd
- Little Rock AR 72201 US
Contact
- Dillards, Web Operation
-
- +1 800 643 8274
Additional Information
Related Domains
External Links
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- Alexa: Dillards.com
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