Williams-Sonoma
| Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | US9699041011 |
| founding | 1956 |
| Seat | San Francisco , United States |
| management | Laura J. Alber |
| Number of employees | 28,100 |
| sales | 4,976,000,000 USD |
| Branch | retail trade |
| Website | www.williams-sonomainc.com |
| As of January 31, 2016 | |
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is an American company based in San Francisco , the special cooking utensils and other household goods and a variety of foods such as gourmet - coffee sold.
General
In 2005, the company owned a total of 560 department stores spread across the United States and Canada . However, only 255 of these stores carried the name Williams-Sonoma , 180 shops ran under the brand name Pottery Barn , 90 more under Pottery Barn Kids and smaller brands such as Williams-Sonoma Home , Hold Everything and West Elm . In fiscal year 2005 was Williams-Sonoma, Inc , a net income of 3.539 billion US dollars earned. In addition, the company had 7,700 full-time employees and 522 shareholders in the same year .
history
Williams-Sonoma was founded in 1956 by Chuck Williams (1915-2015) in Sonoma , California . Even then, high quality cooking utensils were sold for home use. At the suggestion of customers and friends, Williams moved its store to San Francisco in 1958, where the headquarters of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is still today . In 1971, the first sales catalog was created to make the department store public beyond the Bay Area .
One consequence of the increasing success of the company, official registration was as a stock company in 1973. In the same year also continues to this day began expansion of Williams-Sonoma . First, Williams opened new stores in California, such as B. Beverly Hills . As a result, however, the new board of directors owed the company, which is why Chuck Williams sold all of his shares. Nevertheless, he was still responsible for creating catalogs and trading.
After overcoming the economic crisis of Williams-Sonoma , the brand became widely known to the public in 1983. In 1986 Williams bought Pottery Barn , which is still the largest subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. to this day . However, the Pottery Barn Kids brand wasn't founded until 1999. In 2003 the West Elm brand was created .
Williams-Sonoma opened its first international branch on October 20, 2001 in Toronto, Canada . Meanwhile, 13 more department stores have opened in Canada in cities such as Calgary and Vancouver .
literature
- Salvadore, Jean and Parolari, Luciano. Tales of Risotto: Culinary Adventures from Villa d'Este New York: Glitterati Incorporated, 2006. ISBN 0-9777531-3-1 (English)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Williams-Sonoma 2015 Annual Report , accessed November 26, 2016