Claire's

History

1961: Founded as Fashion Tress Industries by Rowland Schaefer. FTI focused on wigs, and became the world's largest retailer of fashion wigs.

1973: Fashion Tress acquired Claire's, a 25-store jewelry chain, and shifted focus away from wigs to a full line of fashion jewelry and accessories. The new firm was named Claire's Stores, Inc.

1978: Claire's began providing ear piercing services.

1980: Established a Hong Kong based sourcing office.

1980s: Claire's continues store expansion throughout the United States.

1989: Bought Topkapi, a Japanese chain with 16 stores

1995: Bought Bow Bangles, a British chain with 71 stores in England, Wales, and Scotland.

1996: Bought The Icing, an American chain with 85 stores. This would become the company's primary brand for women in their 20s.

1996: Bought Accessory Place, an American chain with 31 stores.

1998: Bought Bijoux One, a Swiss chain.

1999: Bought Cleopatre, a privately owned chain based in Paris with 42 stores, for $11 million in cash.

1999: Bought Afterthoughts, which were converted to Icing stores

2001: Launched claires.com

2002: Purchased U.S. based clothing chain Mr. Rags

2005: Claire's Stores, Inc was listed on the NASDAQ.

2007: Taken private by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a $3.1 billion leveraged buyout

2008: Consolidated its European operations into one group, headquartered in Birmingham.

2010: Opened its first stores in Ukraine.

2011: Launched e-commerce in the United States and opened its first stores in India and Mexico.

2012: Opened its first stores in China, Italy, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Honduras

Offices

As of 2014 Claire's has 6 offices:

Illinois office

Claire's has its Illinois offices in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, in Greater Chicago. The facility is a brown brick building off of Interstate 90 (Northwest Tollway), near Barrington Road. The building serves as Claire's distribution center and main facility, and all merchandise is routed through this facility. Its products, which as of 1996 are mainly imported, are distributed and marketed through the Hoffman Estates location. The company's buying, distribution, and marketing divisions are in the Hoffman Estates facility. As of 1996, 236 full-time employees and several temporary employees worked in the facility. Leslie Mann of the Chicago Tribune said that the facility "contrasts with Claire's glittery stores in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and Japan." Mann added that "Except for the prototype store in the lobby and the fashion accessories that line the walls of the buyers' offices, the center is unremarkable."

Previously a facility in Wood Dale, Illinois served the purposes now held by the Hoffman Estates office. In early January 1995 Pfizer sold its Hoffman Estates headquarters building for $7.4 million to Claire's so it could consolidate its operations in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time the Hoffman Estates office had 247,000 square feet (22,900 m²) of space. In 1998 Claire's announced plans to build a two-story office building and a 275,000-square-foot (25,500 m²) warehouse at the Hoffman Estates site. This would double the total amount of space at the Illinois site.

Florida office

Its Florida office in Pembroke Pines, Florida, in Greater Miami. The Florida offices are west of the intersection of Flamingo Road and Pines Boulevard. It has 26,000 square feet (2,400 m²) of space in its Florida offices. As of 1997 the CEO has his office in Pembroke Pines. In addition, the company's customer service and investor relations divisions are located in the Pembroke Pines offices. In November 1990 Claire's moved its Florida offices from northern Dade County to Pembroke Pines. The former headquarters in Dade County had 10,000 square feet (930 m²) of space.

Store types

Stores are aimed principally at teens and tweens, and as such have a kid's section. They average about 1,000 sq. feet, are typically located in malls, and carry the widest selection of merchandise among Claire's brands. Claire's merchandise is targeted at different age groups ranging from babies to young adults. Customers can find earrings, necklaces, bracelets, purses, hair accessories, and fashion accessories. Claire's stores are merchandised to accommodate these different ages, and fashion trends are manipulated to appeal to all ages.

Within America and Canada, Claire's also operates under the Icing brand. These stores are targeted towards young women aged 19–28. The merchandise has a higher price point, and is more mature. Most items are accessories and jewelry, but merchandise also includes items like candles, mineral-based cosmetics, 21st birthday accessories, bachelorette accessories, footwear and many other items. Icing typically does not offer licensed merchandise.

Merchandise

Claire's sell accessories geared towards tweens, teens, and young adults, meant to imitate higher end fashion trends. Costume jewelry, imitation jewelry of precious gems and materials such as pearls and diamonds, branded merchandise advertising tween musicians, body jewelry, hair accessories, and clothing items are available for purchase. The store's merchandise is often divided into sections. Claire's Club is a line of accessories meant for children under 7, featuring princess-themed jewelry and accessories with children's musicians such as Sophia Grace & Rosie. The rest of the store is for tweens to teens, or those over 12 years of age.

Claire's also carries an assortment of seasonal holiday items such as Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, and Christmas items.

Nearly all Claire's locations also offer ear piercing as all the staff are fully trained in using the Studex Gun. Claire's start piercing customers at the age of four months with their sixteen-week immunizations and does not pierce the cartilage of people under 14. Although Claire's target customers are girls and young women, as fashion trends have changed, it has also become a popular place for boys to get their ears pierced as well.

The store carries its own range of perfumes.