Myer
 |
|
| Public (ASX: MYR) | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1900 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia |
| Headquarters |
Docklands, Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
|
Number of locations
|
67+ |
|
Key people
|
Sidney Myer (Founder) Paul McClintock (Chairman) Richard Umbers (CEO & Managing Director) Jennifer Hawkins & Kris Smith (Ambassadors) |
| Products | Womenswear, Menswear, Miss Shop (Youth), Childrenswear, Intimate Apparel, Beauty, Fragrance and Cosmetics, Homewares, Electrical Goods, Toys, Footwear, Handbags and Accessories and General Merchandise |
| Revenue |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number of employees
|
14,000+ |
| Website | www |
A$3.3 billion (2016)
A$113.5 million (2016)
Myer (stylised MYER), is an up market Australian department store chain trading in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of products across women's, men's and children's clothing, footwear and accessories; cosmetics and fragrance; homewares; electrical; furniture and bedding; toys; books and stationery; food and confectionery; and travel goods. Myer's primary department store rival is David Jones.
Australian model, and Miss Universe 2004, Jennifer Hawkins, is the long-serving 'face of Myer'. The department store also engages a number of other personalities as 'fashion ambassadors'.
Myer's has long been Australia's largest department store by revenue and store count.
The Myer retail group was started by Sidney Myer, who migrated from Russia to Melbourne in 1899 with very little money and little knowledge of English to join his elder brother, Elcon Myer (1875–1938), who had left Russia two years earlier. They opened the first Myer store in Bendigo, Victoria in 1900. After prospering, the second store opened in 1908.
In 1911, Myer purchased the business of Wright and Neil, Drapers, in Bourke Street, Melbourne, near the General Post Office, and a new building was completed and opened in 1914. From this base in Melbourne, Myer built Australia's largest chain of department stores, and the only chain with stores in all Australian states.
In 1918, the Doveton woollen mills at Ballarat were purchased, and in 1921 a new building fronting Post Office Place was added at Melbourne and in the following years Myer purchased adjoining properties, eventually building a store known as the Myer Emporium. Myer expanded to Lonsdale Street in the 1920s.
The Myer Emporium grew with the purchase of the old established businesses of Robertson & Moffat and Stephens & Sons. In 1925, Myer Emporium Ltd was listed on the Melbourne Stock Exchange and the new building on the Lonsdale Street frontage was begun. In Adelaide, in 1925, the company Myer SA Stores Ltd acquired a controlling interest in Marshall's department store and its shares continued to be listed on the Adelaide Stock Exchange until Myer Emporium Ltd made a successful takeover bid in 1966. A separate building in Queensberry Street, Melbourne, was put up in 1928, and the Collins Street businesses of T. Webb and Sons, china importers, and W. H. Rocke and Company, house furnishers, were bought and transferred to the Bourke-street building. By 1934, the public company had a paid-up capital of nearly £2,500,000. The company was then employing 5300 people with medical and nursing aid for the staff, and rest homes for them at the seaside and in the Dandenong Ranges.
...
Wikipedia