Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings. The corporate headquarters and the flagship store are located in Downtown Seattle, Washington.
In 1901, John W. Nordstrom used his stake from the Alaska gold rush to open a small shoe store in Seattle, Washington. Over the years, the Nordstrom family of employees built a thriving business on the principles of quality, value, selection and service.
Today, Nordstrom is one of the nation's leading fashion retailers, offering a wide variety of fine quality apparel, shoes and accessories for men, women and children at stores across the country. We remain committed to the simple idea our company was founded on, earning the trust of our customers, one at a time.
Nordstrom, Inc., incorporated in 1946, is a fashion specialty retailer. As of March 19, 2010, the Company operated 187 stores located in 28 states in the United States. The Company operates in four segments: Retail Stores, Direct, Credit and Other. The Retail Stores segment includes its 112 Nordstrom full-line stores, 72 off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, two Jeffrey boutiques, and one clearance store that operates under the name Last Chance. The Direct segment’s merchandise is primarily shipped from its fulfillment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Its Credit segment includes its wholly owned federal savings bank, Nordstrom fsb, through which it offers a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. Its Other segment includes its product development team, called Nordstrom Product Group, which designs and contracts to manufacture private label merchandise sold in its Retail Stores and Direct segments. In addition, this segment includes the Company’s corporate center operations. On March 23, 2011, the Company acquired HauteLook, Inc.
During the fiscal year ended January 30, 2010, the Company opened three Rack stores (Houston, Texas; Kendall, Florida, and Coral Gables, Florida). The Company also owns six merchandise distribution centers, located in Portland, Oregon; Dubuque, Iowa; Ontario, California; Newark, California; Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and Gainesville, Florida, which are utilized by the Retail Stores segment. The Direct segment utilizes one fulfillment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is owned on leased land. It also leases an office building in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area for its Credit segment.
The Retail Stores segment derives its revenues from sales of apparel, shoes, cosmetics and accessories. The Nordstrom Rack stores purchase merchandise directly from manufacturers and also serve as outlets for clearance merchandise from its full-line stores. The Company offers its customers the option to purchase items on its Website and pick them up in its full-line stores.
The merchandising changes, however, quickly backfired. The overhaul, backed by an advertising campaign with the tag line "Reinvent Yourself," emphasized more youthful fashions that were appealing to 20-somethings but that alienated Nordstrom's core baby-boomer shoppers. Sales remained lackluster and earnings were down, leading to Whitacre's ouster in an August 2000 management shakeup. Bruce Nordstrom came out of retirement to take over the chairman's position, while his son Blake assumed the day-to-day reins as president. Blake Nordstrom, one of the former copresidents, had most recently been in charge of Nordstrom Rack. These developments occurred during one of Nordstrom's least profitable years in some time, as net income for fiscal 2000 totaled just $101.9 million on sales of $5.53 billion. Same-store sales increased just 0.3 percent over the previous year's sales. Also in 2000, Nordstrom acquired Façonnable S.A. for about $170 million, gaining full control of the Façonnable brand and the 53 Façonnable boutiques located around the world, mainly in Europe.
The new management team, attempting to turn the retailer's fortunes around, had the further problem of an economic downturn to deal with. After a brief upturn, same-store sales began falling in August 2001, leading the company to lay off as many as 2,500 employees late in the year as part of a cost-cutting initiative. Nordstrom also held its first-ever fall clearance sale to try to reduce excess inventories (unlike most competitors, who conducted regular sales, Nordstrom had traditionally held few promotions: two half-yearly sales for men and women, and an anniversary sale in July). Same-store sales fell 2.9 percent for the year, while net sales increased just 1.2 percent, despite the opening of four Nordstrom department stores and eight Nordstrom Racks. During the early 2000s, new store openings for the Nordstrom flagship centered on the Sun Belt, including the first locations in Florida and several additional ones in Texas. The number of store openings, however, was cut back from what had been perceived as an overly aggressive plan during the Whitacre era.
By 2003 Nordstrom appeared to have regained its lost luster through cost containment, technology initiatives, and a refocusing on its niche: luxury goods at affordable prices. Some analysts considered technology to be the key component, particularly a new state-of-the-art merchandising system, which began to be rolled out in 2002. The system could track sales minute by minute throughout its stores, enabling Nordstrom to reduce markdowns and better target its offerings to customers. On the merchandise side, the retailer began introducing edgier fashion offerings in a department called "via C," in an attempt to leverage its core customer base, which was younger and had a wider age range than its main competitors, Neiman-Marcus Co. and Saks Incorporated. Nordstrom enjoyed its most profitable year ever in 2003: $242.8 million in net income on record revenues of $6.49 billion. Same-store sales rose 4.3 percent, Nordstrom's best performance in ten years. Nordstrom hoped to maintain this forward momentum by continuing to roll out its technology initiatives, keeping a tight rein on expenses, and eschewing large investments in new real estate--only 11 new stores were slated for opening from 2004 through 2008--in favor of sprucing up existing stores and maximizing sales per square foot. The latter was already on the rise, increasing from $319 a square foot in 2002 to $327 in 2003, but were a far cry from industry leader Neiman Marcus's figure of $466 a square foot.
Principal Subsidiaries: Nordstrom fsb; Nordstrom Credit Card Receivables, LLC; Nordstrom Credit, Inc.; Nordstrom Private Label Receivables, LLC; Nordstrom Distribution, Inc.; N2HC, Inc.; Nordstrom International Limited; Nordstrom European Capital Group (France).
Principal Competitors: Saks Incorporated; Neiman-Marcus Co.; Dillard's, Inc.; The May Department Stores Company; Federated Department Stores, Inc.; J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.74
Market Cap (Mil.): $10,524.45
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 218.08
Annual Dividend: 0.92
Yield (%): 1.91
FINANCIALS
JWN.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 17.53 19.22 18.75
EPS (TTM): 37.33 -- --
ROI: 12.08 12.49 1.62
ROE: 34.12 14.10 2.48
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1901 as Wallin & Nordstrom
Employees: 46,000
Sales: $6.49 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: JWN
NAIC: 452110 Department Stores; 448140 Family Clothing Stores; 448210 Shoe Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses
Key Dates:
1901: John W. Nordstrom opens a shoe store in Seattle with Carl Wallin, called Wallin & Nordstrom.
1923: Second store is opened in Seattle.
1928: Nordstrom retires and sells his share in the firm to his sons Everett and Elmer.
1929: Wallin retires and also sells his shares to the Nordstrom sons.
1930: The shoe stores are renamed Nordstrom's.
1933: A third son, Lloyd, joins the firm.
1950: Two new shoe stores are opened, one in Portland, Oregon, and one in a Seattle suburb.
1963: Best Apparel, a Seattle-based women's clothing store, is acquired.
1966: The Nordstrom's shoe store in Portland begins selling clothing as well, adopting the name Nordstrom Best, which is soon the name of the company and all of its outlets.
1968: Third generation of Nordstroms take over management command.
1971: Nordstrom Best goes public.
1973: Company changes its name to Nordstrom, Inc.; first Nordstrom Rack opens.
1978: Opening of a store in Orange County, California, marks the first move outside the Northwest.
1985: Revenues surpass the $1 billion mark.
1988: First East Coast store opens in McLean, Virginia.
1991: First Midwest store opens in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois.
1995: The third-generation Nordstrom managers retire; non-family-member John Whitacre becomes chairman, while six fourth-generation family members become copresidents.
2000: Whitacre is ousted; Bruce Nordstrom is named chairman, Blake Nordstrom, president; Nordstrom acquires Façonnable S.A.
Name Age Since Current Position
Hernandez, Enrique 55 2006 Independent Chairman of the Board
Nordstrom, Blake 50 2005 President, Director
Koppel, Michael 54 2001 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Little, Daniel 49 2003 Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer
Martin-Vachon, Anne 49 2010 Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer
Sari, Robert 55 2009 Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Sunday, Delena 50 2002 Executive Vice President - Human Resources and Diversity Affairs
Nordstrom, Erik 47 2006 Executive Vice President, President - Stores, Director
Nordstrom, Peter 49 2006 Executive Vice President, President - Merchandising, Director
Knight, Kevin 55 2000 Executive Vice President; Chairman and CEO of Nordstrom fsb & President of Nordstrom Credit, Inc
Thomas, Geevy 46 2010 Executive Vice President; President - Nordstrom Rack
Black, Laurie 52 2006 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Cosmetics Division
Nordstrom, James 38 2005 Executive Vice President, President - Nordstrom Direct
Meden, Scott 48 2010 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager – Shoe Division
Myers, Margaret 64 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Accessories & Women’s Specialized Division
Soffe, Loretta 44 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Women’s Apparel Division
Witman, David 52 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Men’s Apparel
Tritton, Mark 47 2009 Executive Vice President and President - Nordstrom Product Group
Worzel, Kenneth 46 2010 Executive Vice President - Strategy and Development
Howell, James 45 2007 Vice President - Finance, Principal Accounting Officer
Campbell, Robert 55 2009 Vice President - Investor Relations, Treasurer
Winter, Alison 64 2001 Independent Director
Campbell, Phyllis 59 2004 Independent Director
Miller, Robert 66 2005 Independent Director
Satre, Philip 61 2006 Independent Director
Walter, Robert 65 2008 Independent Director
Thornton, Felicia 47 2010 Independent Director
Turner, Brian 45 2010 Independent Director
Address:
1617 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101-1742
U.S.A.
In 1901, John W. Nordstrom used his stake from the Alaska gold rush to open a small shoe store in Seattle, Washington. Over the years, the Nordstrom family of employees built a thriving business on the principles of quality, value, selection and service.
Today, Nordstrom is one of the nation's leading fashion retailers, offering a wide variety of fine quality apparel, shoes and accessories for men, women and children at stores across the country. We remain committed to the simple idea our company was founded on, earning the trust of our customers, one at a time.
Nordstrom, Inc., incorporated in 1946, is a fashion specialty retailer. As of March 19, 2010, the Company operated 187 stores located in 28 states in the United States. The Company operates in four segments: Retail Stores, Direct, Credit and Other. The Retail Stores segment includes its 112 Nordstrom full-line stores, 72 off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, two Jeffrey boutiques, and one clearance store that operates under the name Last Chance. The Direct segment’s merchandise is primarily shipped from its fulfillment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Its Credit segment includes its wholly owned federal savings bank, Nordstrom fsb, through which it offers a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. Its Other segment includes its product development team, called Nordstrom Product Group, which designs and contracts to manufacture private label merchandise sold in its Retail Stores and Direct segments. In addition, this segment includes the Company’s corporate center operations. On March 23, 2011, the Company acquired HauteLook, Inc.
During the fiscal year ended January 30, 2010, the Company opened three Rack stores (Houston, Texas; Kendall, Florida, and Coral Gables, Florida). The Company also owns six merchandise distribution centers, located in Portland, Oregon; Dubuque, Iowa; Ontario, California; Newark, California; Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and Gainesville, Florida, which are utilized by the Retail Stores segment. The Direct segment utilizes one fulfillment center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is owned on leased land. It also leases an office building in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area for its Credit segment.
The Retail Stores segment derives its revenues from sales of apparel, shoes, cosmetics and accessories. The Nordstrom Rack stores purchase merchandise directly from manufacturers and also serve as outlets for clearance merchandise from its full-line stores. The Company offers its customers the option to purchase items on its Website and pick them up in its full-line stores.
The merchandising changes, however, quickly backfired. The overhaul, backed by an advertising campaign with the tag line "Reinvent Yourself," emphasized more youthful fashions that were appealing to 20-somethings but that alienated Nordstrom's core baby-boomer shoppers. Sales remained lackluster and earnings were down, leading to Whitacre's ouster in an August 2000 management shakeup. Bruce Nordstrom came out of retirement to take over the chairman's position, while his son Blake assumed the day-to-day reins as president. Blake Nordstrom, one of the former copresidents, had most recently been in charge of Nordstrom Rack. These developments occurred during one of Nordstrom's least profitable years in some time, as net income for fiscal 2000 totaled just $101.9 million on sales of $5.53 billion. Same-store sales increased just 0.3 percent over the previous year's sales. Also in 2000, Nordstrom acquired Façonnable S.A. for about $170 million, gaining full control of the Façonnable brand and the 53 Façonnable boutiques located around the world, mainly in Europe.
The new management team, attempting to turn the retailer's fortunes around, had the further problem of an economic downturn to deal with. After a brief upturn, same-store sales began falling in August 2001, leading the company to lay off as many as 2,500 employees late in the year as part of a cost-cutting initiative. Nordstrom also held its first-ever fall clearance sale to try to reduce excess inventories (unlike most competitors, who conducted regular sales, Nordstrom had traditionally held few promotions: two half-yearly sales for men and women, and an anniversary sale in July). Same-store sales fell 2.9 percent for the year, while net sales increased just 1.2 percent, despite the opening of four Nordstrom department stores and eight Nordstrom Racks. During the early 2000s, new store openings for the Nordstrom flagship centered on the Sun Belt, including the first locations in Florida and several additional ones in Texas. The number of store openings, however, was cut back from what had been perceived as an overly aggressive plan during the Whitacre era.
By 2003 Nordstrom appeared to have regained its lost luster through cost containment, technology initiatives, and a refocusing on its niche: luxury goods at affordable prices. Some analysts considered technology to be the key component, particularly a new state-of-the-art merchandising system, which began to be rolled out in 2002. The system could track sales minute by minute throughout its stores, enabling Nordstrom to reduce markdowns and better target its offerings to customers. On the merchandise side, the retailer began introducing edgier fashion offerings in a department called "via C," in an attempt to leverage its core customer base, which was younger and had a wider age range than its main competitors, Neiman-Marcus Co. and Saks Incorporated. Nordstrom enjoyed its most profitable year ever in 2003: $242.8 million in net income on record revenues of $6.49 billion. Same-store sales rose 4.3 percent, Nordstrom's best performance in ten years. Nordstrom hoped to maintain this forward momentum by continuing to roll out its technology initiatives, keeping a tight rein on expenses, and eschewing large investments in new real estate--only 11 new stores were slated for opening from 2004 through 2008--in favor of sprucing up existing stores and maximizing sales per square foot. The latter was already on the rise, increasing from $319 a square foot in 2002 to $327 in 2003, but were a far cry from industry leader Neiman Marcus's figure of $466 a square foot.
Principal Subsidiaries: Nordstrom fsb; Nordstrom Credit Card Receivables, LLC; Nordstrom Credit, Inc.; Nordstrom Private Label Receivables, LLC; Nordstrom Distribution, Inc.; N2HC, Inc.; Nordstrom International Limited; Nordstrom European Capital Group (France).
Principal Competitors: Saks Incorporated; Neiman-Marcus Co.; Dillard's, Inc.; The May Department Stores Company; Federated Department Stores, Inc.; J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.74
Market Cap (Mil.): $10,524.45
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 218.08
Annual Dividend: 0.92
Yield (%): 1.91
FINANCIALS
JWN.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 17.53 19.22 18.75
EPS (TTM): 37.33 -- --
ROI: 12.08 12.49 1.62
ROE: 34.12 14.10 2.48
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1901 as Wallin & Nordstrom
Employees: 46,000
Sales: $6.49 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: JWN
NAIC: 452110 Department Stores; 448140 Family Clothing Stores; 448210 Shoe Stores; 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses
Key Dates:
1901: John W. Nordstrom opens a shoe store in Seattle with Carl Wallin, called Wallin & Nordstrom.
1923: Second store is opened in Seattle.
1928: Nordstrom retires and sells his share in the firm to his sons Everett and Elmer.
1929: Wallin retires and also sells his shares to the Nordstrom sons.
1930: The shoe stores are renamed Nordstrom's.
1933: A third son, Lloyd, joins the firm.
1950: Two new shoe stores are opened, one in Portland, Oregon, and one in a Seattle suburb.
1963: Best Apparel, a Seattle-based women's clothing store, is acquired.
1966: The Nordstrom's shoe store in Portland begins selling clothing as well, adopting the name Nordstrom Best, which is soon the name of the company and all of its outlets.
1968: Third generation of Nordstroms take over management command.
1971: Nordstrom Best goes public.
1973: Company changes its name to Nordstrom, Inc.; first Nordstrom Rack opens.
1978: Opening of a store in Orange County, California, marks the first move outside the Northwest.
1985: Revenues surpass the $1 billion mark.
1988: First East Coast store opens in McLean, Virginia.
1991: First Midwest store opens in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois.
1995: The third-generation Nordstrom managers retire; non-family-member John Whitacre becomes chairman, while six fourth-generation family members become copresidents.
2000: Whitacre is ousted; Bruce Nordstrom is named chairman, Blake Nordstrom, president; Nordstrom acquires Façonnable S.A.
Name Age Since Current Position
Hernandez, Enrique 55 2006 Independent Chairman of the Board
Nordstrom, Blake 50 2005 President, Director
Koppel, Michael 54 2001 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Little, Daniel 49 2003 Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer
Martin-Vachon, Anne 49 2010 Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer
Sari, Robert 55 2009 Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Sunday, Delena 50 2002 Executive Vice President - Human Resources and Diversity Affairs
Nordstrom, Erik 47 2006 Executive Vice President, President - Stores, Director
Nordstrom, Peter 49 2006 Executive Vice President, President - Merchandising, Director
Knight, Kevin 55 2000 Executive Vice President; Chairman and CEO of Nordstrom fsb & President of Nordstrom Credit, Inc
Thomas, Geevy 46 2010 Executive Vice President; President - Nordstrom Rack
Black, Laurie 52 2006 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Cosmetics Division
Nordstrom, James 38 2005 Executive Vice President, President - Nordstrom Direct
Meden, Scott 48 2010 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager – Shoe Division
Myers, Margaret 64 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Accessories & Women’s Specialized Division
Soffe, Loretta 44 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Women’s Apparel Division
Witman, David 52 2005 Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager - Men’s Apparel
Tritton, Mark 47 2009 Executive Vice President and President - Nordstrom Product Group
Worzel, Kenneth 46 2010 Executive Vice President - Strategy and Development
Howell, James 45 2007 Vice President - Finance, Principal Accounting Officer
Campbell, Robert 55 2009 Vice President - Investor Relations, Treasurer
Winter, Alison 64 2001 Independent Director
Campbell, Phyllis 59 2004 Independent Director
Miller, Robert 66 2005 Independent Director
Satre, Philip 61 2006 Independent Director
Walter, Robert 65 2008 Independent Director
Thornton, Felicia 47 2010 Independent Director
Turner, Brian 45 2010 Independent Director
Address:
1617 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101-1742
U.S.A.