() is a
Fortune 500 operator of department stores in the
United States . While currently headquartered in
Birmingham, Alabama , the company is in the process of moving to
New York City . Saks Incorporated was formerly known as
Proffitt's , Inc., prior to the company's 1998 acquisition of Saks Holdings, Inc., the owner of
Saks Fifth Avenue . Saks Holdings, Inc. had gone public only in 1996 and was majority owned by a group led by
Investcorp , a
Bahrain -based investor group. By September 2006, the company had divested all one-time holdings of Proffitt's, Inc.
The company's flagship and namesake stores operate under the name of
Saks Fifth Avenue . It also operates several outlet stores under the Off 5th nameplate, and the e-commerce website Saks.com. The ventures comprise the Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises division of the company. The company also currently operates 62
Club Libby Lu specialty shops targeted to girls between the ages of 6-12 years old.
Saks Incorporated began as Proffitt's Inc., with just five Proffitt’s stores in metropolitan
Knoxville, Tennessee . From 1994 to 1998, the company added
McRae's ,
Younkers ,
Parisian ,
Herberger's ,
Carson Pirie Scott ,
Boston Store , and
Bergner's chains, as well as 32 additional stores from
Lovemans ,
Hess's ,
Parks-Belk , and
Brody’s , which were converted into existing store nameplates.
In September 1998, Proffitt’s Inc. and Saks Holdings Inc. completed a merger transaction where Saks Fifth Avenue and Off 5th outlet stores became a division of Proffitt’s, Inc. As a result, the corporate name of Proffitt’s, Inc. was changed to Saks Incorporated. The former Saks Holdings properties eventually would become the Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises division of the renamed corporation.
By
2005 , Saks Incorporated began to seek a narrower focus towards the luxury-oriented retail synonymous with its Saks Fifth Avenue stores. The decision resulted in a July 2005 sale of its combined 47
Proffitt's and
McRae's stores to
Belk for approximately $622 million.
On
October 31 that same year, Saks announced that it was selling the 142 stores within its Northern Department Store Group, including Carson Pirie Scott, Bergner's, Younkers, Herberger's, and Boston Store) to
Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., for $1.1 billion; the transaction was complete as of
March 6 ,
2006 .
Saks Incorporated Completes Sale of Its Northern Department Store Group
On August 2, 2006, Saks Incorporated announced that it had agreed to sell its 38 Parisian stores, along with two regional distribution centers, to Belk, which plans to rebrand them under their own name in the third quarter of 2007. Saks has also announced plans to relocate their headquarters from Birmingham to New York.
Other reports have indicated interest in selling off the Club Libby Lu stores. The company's activity within the last 12 months is seemingly oriented toward the return of Saks Fifth Avenue as an independently-operated brand for the first time in more than 30 years. Some industry experts have also speculated that the activity positions a streamlined Saks Incorporated itself for buyout at a later point.
