Kohls

Kohl's Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	: KSS S&P 500 Component
Industry	Retail
Founded	September 12, 1962; 54 years ago (1962-09-12) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Founder	Maxwell Kohl
Headquarters	Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, U.S.
Number of locations	1,155 (Q3 2016)
Key people	Kevin Mansell (Chairman, CEO)
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares.
Revenue	US$19.031 billion (2014) US$19.279 billion (2013)
Operating income	US$1.742 billion (2014) US$1.890 billion (2013)
Net income	US$889.0 million (2014) US$986.0 million (2013)
Total assets	US$14.378 billion (2014) US$13.905 billion (2013)
Total equity	US$5.978 billion (2014) US$6.048 billion (2013)
Number of employees	140,000
Website	www.kohls.com

The Kohl's Corporation is an American department store retailing chain. The first Kohl's store was a corner grocery store opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1927 by Maxwell Kohl. The company's first department store opened in September 1962.British American Tobacco Company took a controlling interest in the company in 1972, and in 1979, the Kohl family left the management of the company. A group of investors purchased the company in 1986 from British-American Tobacco and took it public in 1992. Kohl's is the second-largest department store by retail sales in the United States.

The company is headquartered in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, operating 1,162 stores in 49 states. Kohl's is America's largest department store chain by the number of stores as of February 2013^[update]—surpassing its biggest competitor, J.C. Penney in May 2012. In 1998, it entered the S&P 500 list, and is also listed in the Fortune 500 (#146 in 2012). The chain was the 20th-largest retailer in the United States in 2013 in terms of revenue. As of 2013, Kohl's was the second largest U.S. department store company by retail sales.

Maxwell Kohl, who had operated traditional grocery stores since 1927, built his first supermarket in 1946, the first in what would become a southeastern Wisconsin chain known as Kohl's Food Stores. In 1962, after building Kohl's Food Stores into the largest supermarket chain in the Milwaukee area, Kohl opened his first department store, 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.