![]() ![]() ![]() In addition to bringing 692 new locations to Cole Natl's existing 1,500 retail optical stores, the purchase brought a 21% share of Pearle's European division Pearle Europe. The following year, Cole Natl made its largest acquisition when it purchased the optical retailer Pearle Vision for $165 million. In 1995, the optical division expanded into BJ's Wholesale club, opened its first location in the Target retail chain, and contributed over $300 million to Cole Natl's total sales of $500 million. At the time, Jeffrey Cole, son of the founder and then chairman and chief executive, hoped to position the company to capitalize on an aging baby-boomer population (estimated at nearly 78 million) and their future need for corrective lenses. Within six years, sales grew to just over $200 million. By 1983, the optical division opened its 500th location and total sales for the division exceeded $100 million. By 1975, sales at Thing's Remembered gift stores surpassed $10 million.ĭespite the fantastic growth of its keys shops and gift stores, the main thrust of Cole Natl's business would be as a retail eyewear provider. With time, the concept evolved into the Things Remembered gifts store chain, which would become the leading retailer of personalized gift items offering engraving services on pewter mugs, glassware, jewelry, and other items for special occasions. In 1966, Cole Natl opened its first "Can-Do Shop" kiosk, which packaged a wide variety of services like engraving, rubber-stamp making, plastic sheet laminating, and photocopying with its key-making services at a shopping mall in Louisville, Kentucky. That same year, the key division began offering colored aluminum automobile keys and the company experimented with other soon-to-be successful innovations in retailing. Within five years of its first acquisition, sales at Cole Natl's over 100 optical outlets reached nearly $10 million. The acquisition of Masco Optical in 1960 served as the foundation for Cole Natl's retail optical division that included the operation of the optical departments located in Sears (first opened in 1961) and Montgomery Ward department stores. In 1960, the company changed its name to Cole Natl as it expanded into different product areas. The company went public in 1958, selling out its stock subscription in a single day. The new company was the largest of its kind in the country and Cole soon earned himself the title of the "key king." Manufacturing neither keys nor key-making equipment, Cole's Natl Key relied on over 100 suppliers to provide its growing network of outlets with a product line of over 3,000 different types of keys and accessories. In short time, however, Cole turned the key division into the second largest key company in the nation, behind Natl Key, and, in 1950, Cole purchased both the Natl Key Co. Seven years later, Cole left the company to establish a key division at Curtis Industries, which started as a single key shop in the parking lot of the Sears Roebuck store on Carnegie Ave. In 1926, Joseph Cole entered the retail key business when he joined the Nat'l Key Co. in MAYFIELD HTS., before finally settling at its present location at 1925 Enterprise Pkwy in Twinsburg. Ten years later, the company relocated again to 5915 Landerbrook Dr. Currently located in Twinsburg, Cole Natl moved in 1977 from its headquarters on Grant Ave. COLE NATIONAL CORP., founded by Joseph Cole in 1944, has grown into a massive specialty retailer with its leading interests in retail optical and personalized gift chains.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |