TK Maxx

T.K. Maxx
Subsidiary
Industry Retail
Founded 1994
Founder Bernard Cammarata
Headquarters Framingham, Massachusetts, United States
Number of locations
 407 (end of 2014)[1]
Products Clothing, footwear, bedding and domestics, furniture and giftware
Parent TJX Companies
Slogan Maxx Style. Maxx Savings. Maxx Life.
Website www.tkmaxx.com
T.K. Maxx on The Headrow in Leeds

T.K. Maxx, often styled T.K.Maxx and sometimes referred to as TK Maxx, is a company that operates stores throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands,[2] totaling 407 stores in Europe in December 2014.[3]

The company is part of the TJX Companies, which also owns 'off-price' retail chains TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, and Sierra Trading Post in the United States, and Marshalls (separate from the U.S. Marshalls chain), HomeSense, and Winners in Canada. It offers men's, women's and children's apparel and shoes, as well as other areas such as toys, bath and beauty, accessories, and home products ranging from furniture to kitchen utensils.[4]

The CEO of TJX companies is Carol Meyrowitz.

History

In 1976, T.J. Maxx was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts by Bernard Cammarata, as a nameplate of the Zayre chain of discount department stores. When Zayre sold their own nameplate to Ames, a rival discount department store, Zayre was renamed as "TJX Companies, Incorporated".

The first European store opened in Bristol in 1994.[5] The company modified the name to T.K. Maxx to avoid "confusion with the established British retail chain T J Hughes (which is not affiliated with TJX)".[6]

In 2007, T.K. Maxx began winding down new store openings within the United Kingdom. Focus was given to revamping older inner city stores or relocating them. This decision led to the creation of the Maxx Maxx concept, a new department store format that saw T.K. Maxx get away from its budget reputation into a large store format with a wider product range.

The first store in Germany opened on 4 October 2007 in Lübeck.[7] The chain hopes that this will be more successful than the company's earlier attempt at opening stores in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2001.

In August 2008, T.K. Maxx opened its first central London store on High Street, Kensington, on the site formerly occupied by Habitat.[8] However, in the following year T.K. Maxx became locked in a dispute over its plans to open a store at Piccadilly Circus, London. It had signed an agreement in February 2009 to occupy a 20,000-square-foot (1,858 m2) unit, formerly used by Virgin Megastores and later Zavvi, with a £1.55 million a year rent.[9] The freehold to the land is owned by the Crown Estate which had the final decision over allowing the company to move into the unit. The Crown Estate rejected the plans, saying that it did not fit in with the strategy it had for the site which was meant to give the area an upmarket appeal.[10] The decision was met with condemnation from publicist Max Clifford who launched a campaign in conjunction with Look magazine to persuade the Crown Estate to allow the store to open in the unit.[11] T.K. Maxx went to court to appeal against the decision but failed, as Dutch retailer, The Sting, has now taken the building as their first UK store.[12]

In March 2009, its e-commerce site was launched at first only selling handbags. The range of products has now been expanded and includes other accessories.[13]

In 2015, the first Dutch store opened in Eindhoven

Charity work

In June 2007, in the United Kingdom, T.K. Maxx was an active participant of Comic Relief, having been the sole retailer of the Red Nose Day T-shirts which generated £2 million for the Comic Relief cause.[14] In June 2009, T.K. Maxx was again the sole retailer of the Red Nose Day T-shirts with exclusive designs by Stella McCartney, raising a total of £3,200,589.[15]

In concurrence with Red Nose Day 2011, each T.K. Maxx is set a target by the company to raise, e.g. £3000. Each store tries to raise the target by staff doing tasks e.g. non-uniform day, manager job swap, bun sales, official T-shirt sales and many other ideas. Based at the Tamworth store in Staffordshire, long standing employee Peter Hodkinson is credited by raising £31,458 by completing a solo 34 hour car-washing marathon. To this day setting not only a company record for fund raising, but also holding the world record for numbers of Vauxhall Omegas cleaned in 24 hours.

Stores

T.K. Maxx also worked with the Woodland Trust by starting to charge for plastic carrier bags in August 2008 and donating the proceeds to the Trust. The proceeds have allowed the Woodland Trust to plant 30,000 new trees on a 15 acres (60,703 m2) site near Elmstead Market, Essex. The usage of carrier bags from T.K. Maxx has reduced by 73% since the scheme was launched. Since 2004, T.K. Maxx has held a Christmas card recycling scheme in conjunction with the Trust.[16]

T.K. Maxx also runs a 'Give Up Clothes For Good' campaign, where customers are encouraged to bring in unwanted clothes for Cancer Research UK[17][18]

In Ireland, T.K. Maxx actively supports Enable Ireland, a charity which helps provide free services to children with disabilities.[19]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "T.K.Maxx".
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ T.K. Maxx, The TJX Companies, Inc., undated. Retrieved: 28 November 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.tjx.com/businesses_tjmaxx.asp
  5. ↑ Hoovers. "The TJX Companies, Inc". Answers.com. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  6. ↑ Joachim Zentes, Dirk. Morschett, Hanna Schramm-Klein (2011). Strategic Retail Management: Text and International Cases. Gabler Verlag.
  7. ↑ "About T.K. Maxx". T.K. Maxx. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  8. ↑ Donati, Marino (2008-08-28). "Shoppers queue for Kensington TK Maxx". Drapers online. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  9. ↑ Prynn, Jonathan (2009-04-24). "TK Maxx ‘not posh enough' for West End". This Is London. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  10. ↑ Cooper, Ben (2009-04-29). "TK Maxx ‘not posh enough’ for Piccadilly". Retail Week. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  11. ↑ "Celebrities back TK Maxx over Piccadilly Circus store". Retail Week. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  12. ↑ Duxbury, Nick (2009-05-09). "TK Maxx Piccadilly store court case brought forward". Property Week. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  13. ↑ Thompson, James (2009-08-19). "Discount fashion: Taking it to the Maxx". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
  14. ↑ "Red Nose Day Partners". Comic Relief. 2007-06-25. Archived from the original on 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  15. ↑ "TK Maxx". Red Nose Day 09. Archived from the original on May 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  16. ↑ "TK Maxx and Woodland Trust working in partnership". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  17. ↑ "Community Cancer Research UK - TK Maxx". tkmaxx.com.
  18. ↑ "Bag your unwanted quality clothes, drop them off at your local TK Maxx. Raise money for Cancer Research UK!". tkmaxx.com.
  19. ↑ Rob Le Boutillier. "Give up Clothes for good - Enable Ireland - TK Maxx Ireland". tkmaxx.ie.

External links

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