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Tuxedo Exchange Inc history
Tuxedo Exchange Inc company history timeline
The company was founded in 1877 by German immigrant David May, who opened a clothing store in the silver-mining boom town of Leadville, Colorado, after failing as a miner.
Their headquarters was relocated to St Louis, and the business was incorporated in 1910.
1946: The company is founded by D.Q. Mitchell and his wife in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1972, George Zimmer had been out of college for two years and was just back from a year in Hong Kong, where he had set up a factory for his father's raincoat manufacturing business.
When Botany went bankrupt in 1972, its labels were bought by Joseph H. Cohen (JHC) of Philadelphia.
He opened Men's Wearhouse in August 1973, selling the suits well below the prices charged at Foley's and other department stores.
1974: D.Q. Mitchell dies.
In addition, after Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, Washington, D.C., placed a greater emphasis on formal events, leading to a larger number of black-tie affairs around the country.
Desai had been in operation since 1984 and managed institutionally funded investment partnerships, giving it access to the funds necessary to turn Mitchell's into the national player the chain's management envisioned.
In 1989, Nordstrom Department Store sued Men's Wearhouse for false advertising, disputing the company's claim that Men's Wearhouse suits were identical to those sold by Nordstrom.
In April 1992, Zimmer took the company public, selling 2.25 million shares at $8.67 per share and raising $12.7 million. It opened 17 new stores in 1990 and 19 the following year.
In 1990, C&R Clothiers also sued, complaining about false claims regarding pricing.
In April 1992, Zimmer took the company public, selling 2.25 million shares at $8.67 per share and raising $12.7 million.
In the fall of 1992, the company introduced Made by America (MBA), a sportswear catalog.
Although cleverly written (and with a percentage of sales going to reduce the national deficit), the catalog did not generate sufficient sales and was discontinued in 1993.
In May 1994, the company completed its third public offering of one million shares at $29 per share, which generated net proceeds of $14.5 million.
The company had started selling shoes three years earlier, offering Rockport, Florsheim, and Bostonian; it began offering its own private-label brand in early 1994.
The year 1995 saw the opening of a 35,500-square-foot office, training, and redistribution facility in California.
First quarter net earnings were 53 percent higher than in 1995, and comparable store sales rose 7.6 percent, compared to a 4.3 percent increase for the same period the previous year.
Men's Wearhouse had begun courting Moores the Suit People, Canada's largest retailer of men's tailored clothing, in 1995.
In March 1996, the company joined a liquidator (Buxbaum, Ginsberg & Associates) in buying the assets of Atlanta-based Kuppenheimer Men's Clothiers, which had 43 stores.
In 1996, the Mitchell family decided to sell the business to a group of investors led by three members of management: Joe Doyle, who had been with the company for 22 years, along with Dick Weir and Wayne Griner.
During 1996, the company opened its first store in the Washington, D.C., market, marking its initial entry into the Northeast.
Men's Wearhouse ended 1996 with about 300 stores.
In 1997, Men's Wearhouse acquired 17 stores of southern California's C&R Clothiers Inc. and the six super-sized stores, up to 19,000 square feet each, of Walter Pye's NAL in Houston.
In March 1999, the company merged with K&G Men's Center Inc., a publicly traded, lower-end men's clothing chain open only on weekends.
In early 1999, with 115 stores located in 64 cities, Mitchell's hired Robinson-Humphrey Co., an Atlanta securities firm, to help it find a suitable backer.
In addition, in 1999 the chain added its own private label and became the first to offer the Tommy Hilfiger Formal Wear line of tuxedos and accessories.
1999: Desai Capital Management Inc. acquires a controlling interest.
In March 2000, it acquired Nationwide Formalwear Inc. of West Chester, Pennsylvania, operators of the 70-unit Small's chain.
Men's Wearhouse stock migrated from the NASDAQ Stock Exchange to the Big Board in the fall of 2000.
In December 2001, the business was sold for approximately $100 million in cash to St Louis-based The May Department Stores Company, one of the largest department store operators, which generated more than $13 billion each year in revenues.
In 2001, Mitchell's changed its name to After Hours Formalwear Inc., and Desai saw a chance to not only provide the formalwear chain with an opportunity for even greater growth but also to realize a healthy profit on its investment.
May added the company to the mix in January 2002, at the same time fulfilling a goal to become the largest wedding store chain in America when it acquired Priscilla of Boston for an undisclosed amount of cash.
Finally, in November 2002, After Hours paid $23 million to buy 125 stores from the Gingiss Group, its longtime competitor.
It had plans to expand K&G Women's nationally beginning in 2002, eventually opening 165 stores nationwide.
May also took steps in 2003 to grow the After Hours business, opening two dozen new stores and making several acquisitions.
In June 2003, May paid an undisclosed amount of cash for the 25-store Modern Tuxedo chain, a Chicago area operation that generated about $12 million in annual sales.
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