Type Subsidiary Products Jewelry Revenue 1.888 billion USD (2013) Parent organization Signet Jewelers | Industry Retailing Operating income Number of employees 12,500 (July 2012) | |
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Number of locations Zales and Gordon’s: 781
Zales Outlet: 130
Peoples and Mappins: 206
Piercing Pagoda: 652
(October 2012) Key people Terry Burman (Chairman)
Theo Killion (CEO)
Matthew Appel (CAO) Headquarters Irving, Texas, United States CEO Mark Steven Light (1 Nov 2014–) Founded 1924, Wichita Falls, Texas, United States Subsidiaries Piercing Pagoda, Gordon's Jewelers Profiles | ||
Zale corporation celebrates valentine s day and rings the nyse opening bell
The Zale Corporation is an American jewelry retailer, incorporated in Delaware in 1993. The principal executive offices are located in Irving, Texas.
Contents
Early years
The company began in 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when Morris (M. B.) Zale, William Zale, and Ben Lipshy opened the first Zales Jewelers store. As a marketing strategy, the Zale brothers instituted a credit plan whereby customers could pay "a penny down and a dollar a week," making jewelry and other merchandise affordable for the average working American. The success of this credit policy led to the company expanding to a total of 12 stores in Oklahoma and Texas by 1941.
Zales Jewelers moved its headquarters from Wichita Falls to Dallas in 1946.
Shopping malls
In 1957, Zales Jewelers broadened its reach, opening the first store in a shopping center—a major shift from operating only in downtown locations. The same year, Zales announced the initial public offering of its stock (ZLC) and began trading its public shares on the American Stock Exchange in 1958. In 1989, Zale acquired Gordon Jewelry.
Internet commerce
In 1998, online shopping was opened at www.zales.com.
Corporate restructuring
In 1999 and 2000, Zale expanded with two major acquisitions: Peoples Jewellers of Canada and Piercing Pagoda.
In 2007, the Company divested its Bailey Banks and Biddle brand to Finlay.
Until 1986, Zales operated a catalog showroom called O. G. Wilson.
In February 2014, Signet Jewelers agreed to buy Zale Corporation, with Zale shareholders receiving USD$21 a share in cash in USD$1.3 billion deal. This merger will create a $6.2 billion firm.
In January 2017, Zales announced it would close many of its mall stores when the leases expire, according to a report from NBC affiliate WGAL in Pennsylvania.