 |
|
Gordon Segal, Crate & Barrel, UNITED STATES
Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first store in 1962 at an abandoned elevator factory on Wells Street in the then-bohemian Old Town neighborhood of... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Gordon Selfridge, Selfridges, UNITED KINGDOM
Selfridges was the brainchild of famed retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge, an American who came to England at the turn of the century. Selfridge started his... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Gottleib Duttweiler, Migros, SWITZERLAND
An unconventional retailer, Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler shaped Swiss economic history with a knack for business, tenacious attitude, bold ideas and a strong sense of... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Henry Racamier, LVMH, FRANCE
Henry Marcel Racamier was born in 1912, in Pont-de-Roide, in the Doubs region of eastern France, the son of an industrialist. After acquiring a business... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Ian MacLaurin, Tesco, UNITED KINGDOM
The retired chairman of mobile phone giant Vodafone, Ian MacLaurin is best known for his 38 years with Tesco, which he joined in 1959. The... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Ian Wade, AS Watson, HONG KONG
When Ian Wade stepped down as group managing director of AS Watson at the end of 2006 he had presided over a remarkable period in... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea, SWEDEN
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad made headlines in early 2004 when Swedish business magazine Veckans Affarer reported that he had surpassed Bill Gates as the world's... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Isao Nakauchi, Daiei, JAPAN
Isao Nakauchi founded supermarket chain Shufu no Mise (housewives’ store) Daiei in the western port city of Kobe in 1957 as a drugstore and revolutionised... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jack Cohen, Tesco, UNITED KINGDOM
Sir John Edward Cohen - commonly known as Jack Cohen - was born in the East End of London, the son of an immigrant Polish-Jewish... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
James Cash Penney, JC Penney, UNITED STATES
James Cash Penney was born in 1875 on a small farm outside of Hamilton, Missouri, the seventh of 12 children. His father was a poor... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
James Cloppenburg Jr, Peek & Cloppenburg, GERMANY
In 1869, Germans Johann Theodor Peek and Heinrich Cloppenburg established their first fashion store in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. However, Heinrich Cloppenburg's son James... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
James Sinegal, Costco, UNITED STATES
Raised in a working-class Catholic family, James Sinegal dreamed of going to medical school but mediocre high-school grades meant he was advised to attend San... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jean-Pierre Le Roch, Intermarché, FRANCE
Intermarché, the Société Civil des Mousquetaires, and ITM Entreprises were founded by Breton Jean-Pierre Le Roch in 1969. Le Roch had formerly owned and operated... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jef Colruyt, Colruyt, BELGIUM
Colruyt was established in 1925 by Franz Colruyt as a small wholesale business on the outskirts of Brussels and quickly moved from the import of... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jerónimo Arango, Aurrerá, MEXICO
Cifra, Wal-Mart de Mexico's predecessor, was founded in 1958 by Jerónimo Arango. The son of a Spanish immigrant to Mexico who prospered in the textile... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jesse Boots, Boots, UNITED KINGDOM
Jesse Boot, the founder of the eponymous company, was born in Nottingham in 1850, the first child and only son of John Boot and his... |
Read more...
|
|
|
|
John Ewald, Avon, UNITED STATES
John Ewald, who was born in Maspeth, Queens went to work for Avon's predecessor, the California Perfume Company, while he was still in high school.... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
John James Sainsbury, Sainsbury’s, UNITED KINGDOM
John James Sainsbury was born in 1844 in Lambeth, London. During his childhood his family moved house several times between rented rooms. The area in... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
John Moores, Littlewoods, UNITED KINGDOM
John Moores founded not only what, at one stage, would become the UK’s largest privately-owned retailer but also the Littlewoods Football Pools, a hugely popular... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
John Wanamaker, Wanamakers, UNITED STATES
John Wanamaker opened his first store in 1861, called Oak Hall, at Sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia, on the site of George Washington's Presidential... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale, Bloomingdale’s, UNITED STATES
Lyman G Bloomingdale (1841-1905) founded Bloomingdales Department Store in April of 1872, with his brother Joseph (1842-1904) on 56th Street in New York. The son... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Jules Delhaize, Delhaize, BELGIUM
Commercial sciences professor Jules Delhaize was born in 1829 and had developed his own theories about food retailing by the middle of the 19th-century. In... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Karl and Theo Albrecht, Aldi, GERMANY
Karl and Theo Albrecht were raised in modest circumstances: their father was an out of work miner affected with black lung disease, who worked as... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Laura Ashley, Laura Ashley, UNITED KINGDOM
Laura Ashley was born in 1925 in a terraced house in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. She was raised in a civil service family as a Baptist... |
Read more...
|
|
|
|
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Leslie Wexner, The Limited, UNITED STATES
Leslie Wexner reinvigorated the business of selling women's clothes by offering fashionable separates that evoked particular lifestyles. He began The Limited with $5,000 and one... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Levi Strauss, Levi Strauss, UNITED STATES
Levi Strauss, the inventor of the blue jean, was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria in 1829 to Hirsch Strauss and his second wife, Rebecca Haas Strauss.... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Luciana Benetton, Benetton, ITALY
Born in 1935 in Treviso, Italy, Luciano Benetton, together with his siblings Giuliana, Gilberto and Carlo, combined in 1965 to launch the Benetton Group. Luciano,... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey, Carrefour, FRANCE
In May 1959, Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey decided to incorporate what are now commonplace modern retail concepts into their store in Annecy, France. Both... |
Read more...
|
|
 |
|
Marshall Fields, Marshall Fields, UNITED STATES
Retailing pioneer Marshall Field was born the third of six children in 1834 on a farm near Conway, Massachusetts. In 1853 at the age... |
Read more...
|
follow us on Twitter