Sterling Jewelers Inc.

Sterling Jewelers Inc. was founded in 1906 by Henry Shaw (the father of Jerry Shaw, the chairman emeritus of Sterling today), from LeRoy's Jewelers in Lorain, Ohio. Their headquarters in Akron, Ohio was established in 1912. Sterling is a wholly owned subsidiary of Signet Jewelers Limited (listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SIG), having been acquired in 1987. Sterling is the largest speciality fine jewelry company in the United States by sales and number of stores. The company operates chains of fine jewelery stores in the United States, with 1,414 stores in all 50 states as of 5 August 2008. Mark Light is the President and Chief Executive of Sterling Inc.

Sterling's main competitor is Zale Corporation, which operates the #2 US specialty retail jewelry chain. According to the company's 2 February 2008 Annual Report & Accounts, Sterling has the #2 position in the US with a 4.2% market share of all jewelry purchases (compared to Wal-Mart at 4.5%, a substantial amount of that being types of jewelry which Sterling does not sell). Sterling has a leading 8.8% market share in the speciality jeweler market share (highest in the sector), compared to Zale Corporation at 6.4% (#2 position).

Sterling has been one of the largest corporate sponsors of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and holds many fundraisers for the hospital, always donating all profits made from the fundraiser. Since 1999 $10.5 million dollars has been raised, with $2.4 million in 2006 alone. The company also sponsors many other charities and causes, such as the West Side Relay for Life benefitting cancer organizations.

Kay Jewelers

Sterling's main brand is Kay Jewelers, which uses "Every Kiss Begins with Kay" in its advertising. Established in 1916 in Reading, Pennsylvania by Sol and Edmund Kaufman when they opened in the corner of their father's furniture store, there are now 916 Kay Jewelers stores as of 2 August 2008, making it the number one jewelry store brand in the United States by sales and number of stores. Kay Jewelers was acquired by Sterling in 1990, and was formerly headquartered in Virginia.

Most Kay stores are in malls, but many new stores are being opened outside malls in power strips and lifestyle centers.

Recently, Sterling has been opening Kay Jewelers Outlet stores. Kay Outlet stores offer a much broader selection of clearance styles.

Jared The Galleria of Jewelery

Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry stores are freestanding (not in malls) and carry about five times the selection of a typical mall jewelers location, including unmounted diamonds and settings. Jared locations have a large custom design and repair department, a children's play area, and an espresso/refreshment lounge. Their TV commercials use "He Went to Jared!" as a tagline. All stores carry branded Swiss watches and national jewelry brands. There were 158 Jared stores as of 2 August 2008. Sterling opened the first Jared in 1993.

J.B. Robinson Jewelers and Regional Stores

Sterling also operates many other regional stores, including: J.B. Robinson Jewelers, Marks & Morgan Jewelers, Belden Jewelers, Osterman Jewelers, Shaw's Jewelers, Weisfield Jewelers, LeRoy's Jewelers, Rogers Jewelers, Goodman Jewelers, and Friedlander's Jewelers The regional stores are located in malls, usually when there is already a Kay store in the mall.

When purchased by Signet in 1987, Sterling Inc. consisted of LeRoy's, Goodman (and Hudson-Goodman), and Friedlander's. The sister company Westhall Co., which had split off as Shaw-Rogers in 1937, was also purchased and combined with Sterling, bringing back Shaw's, Rogers, and Belden.

LeRoy's Jewelers and Shaw's Jewelers were the original Sterling jewelry stores. Henry Shaw opened LeRoy's in Lorain, Ohio in 1910. A second store was opened in 1912 in Youngstown, Ohio, followed by the first "Shaw's Jewelers" in Akron, Ohio in 1919.

Friedlander's Jewelers had been purchased by Sterling in 1986. Samuel Friedlander opened "Harrison and Friedlander" in 1886 in downtown Seattle, Washington, and the business eventually becoming the upscale "Friedlander & Sons" in 1913 when his son John Friedlander joined the business. Friedlander's carried china and silver as well as having a bridal registry. When Sterling purchased Friedlander's, original plans called for the Friedlander name to be expanded nationwide, capitalizing on the name's higher-end roots. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/archives/1986/8601060459.asp] . Unfortunately this plan did not work out, and the downtown Seattle flagship Friedlander's location closed in 1995. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950126&slug=2101519]

Osterman Jewelers was acquired in 1988 with the purchase of Osterman's Inc. Osterman's was founded in Toledo, Ohio in 1922 and grew to 56 stores in 10 states before the acquisition.

Weisfield Jewelers was acquired in 1989 from Weisfield's Inc. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/archives/1989/8902020129.asp] . Weisfield's Inc. was established in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the acquisition, Weisfield's had 87 stores in nine states. Weisfield's Inc. established the Valu-Mart chain of discount stores in the 1950's, but sold the chain in 1976 to Fred Meyer. Weisfield Jewelers founder Leo Weisfield was also one of the founders of Seafair, a summertime festival in Seattle.

Marks & Morgan Jewelers was acquired in 2000. At that time Marks & Morgan Jewelers Inc. had 137 stores and was the ninth largest speciality jeweler in the United States. The company was established in 1909 and formerly headquartered in Augusta, Georgia. The chain was originally known as A.A. Friedman Co. (not to be confused with the defunct Friedman's Inc., which used to operate as Friedman's and Crescent Jewelers), the name coming from a jewelry store owned by two brothers in the early 1920's in Georgia. The brothers eventually divided the company, but kept the name, agreeing to not compete in each other's markets. While one brother's descendants kept his half of the business, the other's family sold their half in 1990 to what became Friedman's Inc. The company name was changed to Marks & Morgan after the rights to the Friedman name were sold to Friedman's Inc. in 1997. "Marks" came from the Betty Marks, the company's late chairman, and "Morgan" from Susan Morgan, her daughter and chairman until the sale of the company to Sterling in 1999.

J.B. Robinson Jewelers was established in 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio. Its 82 stores were acquired by Sterling in 1990 in the Kay Jewelers Inc. acquisition. In 1959 Larry J.B. Robinson took over his parent's business and built it into the J.B Robinson Jewelers chain of 96 stores. Robinson sold his company to W.R. Grace & Co. in 1979, who then sold it to Kay in 1987. J.B. Robinson (also known as JBR) is the largest regional chain. JBR's tagline is "A Heritage of Trust Since 1929", but recently the trademarked tagline "Go Where Love Takes You" has been used. There were 114 JB Robinson Jewelers locations on 3 February 2007.

The regionals' (excluding JBR) collective tagline is "Go Straight to the Heart", often used in a radio jingle. Because of their heritage, every regional brand has its own specialties, as well as sometimes dramatic differences in jewelry selection depending on the clientele. For example, many Osterman and Friedlander's stores are decidedly upscale. There were 340 regionally branded stores (including JB Robinson locations) on 2 August 2008.

Previous Nameplates

Previous store brands and nameplates that Sterling Jewelers Inc. used to own or use include "Sterling Jewelers" (original Sterling brand, now the corporate name), "Hudson-Goodman Jewelers" (original Sterling brand), "Adison Jewelers" (Osterman acquisition), "Orange Blossom Jewelers" (Osterman acquisition), "Ringmaker's" (Ringmaker's and Allen's acquisition), "Allen's Jewelers" (Ringmaker's and Allen's acquisition), "Marcus" fine jewelry counters in department stores (Kay acquisition), and "Black, Starr & Frost" (Kay acquisition).

Legal Controversies

"Manning v. Sterling Jewelers" is a civil court case filed in April, 2006 of which appears in the official Palm Beach County Civil Court Codex. The case was essentially a dispute filed by a Mr. Manning of Delray Beach in regards to an incident involving fraud and misrepresentation of merchandise he purchased in a Jared Store located in in Boynton Beach, Florida. Manning won the case and was awarded $57,500.Palm Beach County Court Civil Cases 2006-2007, Vol 7, No. 2, 2008.] Local Palm Beach County Newspapers, The Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel, published his story in 2007 after his case was briefly mentioned on local television networks WSVN and WPEC. Controversially, Sterling Jewelers has a near-spotless track record involving litigation - and this was most likely an isolated incident, as no other cases against Sterling Jewelers have come up.

References

External Links and References

* [http://www.signetgroupplc.com/ Signet Group plc]
* [http://www.sterlingjewelers.com/ Sterling Jewelers Inc.]
* [http://www.kay.com/ Kay Jewelers]
* [http://www.jared.com/ Jared: The Galleria of Jewelery]
* [http://www.jbr.com/ JB Robinson Jewelers]
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/112/112855.html Sterling Jewelers Inc. Company Profile] at Yahoo! Finance
* [http://www.sterlingcareers.com/about/history.html/ History of Sterling Jewelers Inc.]
* [http://www.jckonline.com/article/CA6252191.html/ Marks and Morgan Settlement]
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/neighbors/downtown/thred20.html/ About downtown Seattle's past, talks about Friedlander's]
* [http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/papersrecords/FriedlanderJohn2496.xml/ Oral history of John Friedlander]
* [http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/papersrecords/WeisfieldLeo2099.xml/ Leo Weisfield Papers]