Ge Capital Montgomery Ward history

Montgomery Ward began as a one-sheet mail-order catalog in 1872 with 163 items, the concept of Aaron Montgomery Ward.

Late in 1873, his brother-in-law, George Thorne, put $500 into the firm and became an equal partner.

By the end of 1874, sales topped $100,000.

Increased sales--$300,000 in 1875--allowed Ward to increase service.

In 1883 the “Wish Book,” as it came to be known, had grown to 240 pages with more than 10,000 items.

In 1884 Ward bought the Farmer's Voice weekly newspaper to use as an advertising vehicle.

In 1886 William C. Thorne, George Thorne's eldest son, increased the size and circulation of the catalog, leading to a boom in orders.

By 1888 Ward's sales had reached $1.8 million.

To cap off the decade, Ward and George Thorne turned their partnership into a corporation in 1889.

Into that breach Richard Sears, founder of Sears, Roebuck & Co., walked with the slogan "we always undersell." By 1892, the Ward catalog contained 568 pages and 8,000 illustrations.

In 1893 Aaron Ward and George Thorne turned managing control over to Thorne's four sons.

In 1900 Ward built a new headquarters at Michigan Boulevard and Madison Street in Chicago.

Like Sears they offered premiums as incentives for customers to buy more, and in 1906 they mailed out three million free catalogs, after having charged 15¢ per catalog for many years.

In 1908, Montgomery Ward opened its first retail outlet in Plymouth, Indiana.

In 1912 Ward made a 6.7 percent profit, and the following year it made 4.1 percent, while Sears made 9.1 percent.

With the death of cofounder George Thorne in September--Aaron Ward had died in 1913--they sought new capital and new thinking.

In 1915, Wards had a record year, making $3.4 million on just under $50 million in sales.

However, even with record profits--$6.4 million on 1918 sales of $76.2 million--the Thornes could see Montgomery Ward had fallen behind Sears.

Sales dropped to two-thirds of their 1919 level.

In September 1920 a financial panic hit, and prices began to fall.

Even though 1922 marked a return to profitability, Wood sensed that the automobile would eventually render mail order obsolete.

In 1924 Merseles heard of the negotiations and fired Wood.

In 1927 Merseles left Montgomery Ward to run Johns-Manville.

Ward issued new stock in November 1928 and opened 208 stores that year.

Everitt announced a crash plan for 1,500 rural stores by the end of 1929.

By 1930 there were 556 of them across the country, and retail sales exceeded catalog sales.

Ward's situation worsened in 1931 with losses of $8.7 million on $198 million in sales.

After closing 147 poorly performing stores, Montgomery Ward lost $5.7 million on 1932 sales of $176.4 million.

Montgomery Ward returned to the black in 1933, making $2.9 million from store sales, but losing $630,000 on the catalog operation.

By 1937 Ward's sales were 76 percent of Sears's and well ahead of J.C. Penney's, but there were also problems.

It was a Ward advertising writer who in 1939 wrote ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' as an illustrated poem to hand out to children visiting Ward's Santa for Christmas.

Profits for 1940 were a disappointing 4.5 percent of sales.

In November 1942 he argued with President Roosevelt and the National War Labor Board over a closed shop for the United Mail Order, Warehouse, and Retail Employees' Union.

By 1944 Montgomery Ward's sales were just 62 percent of Sears's.

Mail-order business emerged in Europe at the end of the 19th century, but its greatest development was after 1945.

The postwar boom&mdash′ofits were $52 million in 1946--did little to change his mind as Sears and others expanded.

The company continued on a popular path until 1950, when Americans began settling in suburbia, and malls started sprouting up everywhere.

Things continued to go badly for the company and in 1954, they found themselves in a proxy fight with Louis E. Wolfson, an activist investor that wanted Sewells job and Montgomery Ward.

In 1957 Barr established a store research and development department that used demographic information to locate the first new stores since before the war.

With the development of computerized mailing lists and techniques after about 1960, many large retailers combined mail-order circularizing with billing.

In 1965 Barr retired and Brooker became chairman.

Ed Donnell, who became president in 1966, continued the expansion plans.

In 1968, a friendly merger took place with Container Corporation of America.

In 1969 the Dayton Company (soon called Dayton Hudson) bought Lechmere and quickly expanded it into a regional chain.

In May 1970 Robert Brooker retired.

By 1972, Ward's 100th anniversary, the big retailer was adding a million square feet of store space a year, primarily in shopping centers.

Marcor was the holding company that was sold to Mobil Corporation in 1973.

In 1975 Mobil bought the rest of Marcor and separated Ward and Container Corporation.

In an effort to cut catalog losses Ward began selling advertising space in the company's catalog in 1976.

In 1978 sales reached $5.47 billion, and pretax profits hit $224 million.

In 1980, Montgomery Ward lost $233 million on sales of just under $6 billion.

In 1981 Montgomery Ward lost $217 million on sales of $5.64 billion.

In June 1985 Mobil persuaded former Ward executive Bernard Brennan (who had previously worked as assistant national manager for furniture at Sears) to return as president and chief executive officer.

Mobil Corporation sold Montgomery Ward in 1988, and, although the latter attempted to again became an independent corporation, it was purchased by a subsidiary of General Electric.

The 1990s started on a promising note for Montgomery Ward as the company posted record earnings of $153 million in 1990.

As many will remember, R.H. Macy & Company filed for bankruptcy in 1992, but was a much different company than Ward, filing a few years later.

1994: Montgomery Ward opens first Electric Avenue & More stores, acquires New England retail chain Lechmere.

By mid-1996 any further growth of Lechmere or Electric Ave. & More was at least temporarily halted so that the company could concentrate on a new launch, HomeImage by Lechmere; six HomeImage stores opened in August 1996.

By early 1997 Ward had opened 11 Electric Ave. & More stores.

For the last year it reported earnings, in 1998, the company had sales of $3.6 billion but still lost $971 million.

For fiscal 1999, Wards reported $3.2 billion in sales.

2000: Montgomery Ward announces plan to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, shutter 250 stores in 30 states.