Sign in

Private company

Saks Fifth Avenue

Logo: en:Saks Fifth Avenue . Original uploader was Vargklo at en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American international department store chain

Saks Fifth Avenue (colloquially Saks) is an upmarket American department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C., and expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902. Saks was bought by the Gimbels department store chain in 1923 and expanded nationwide during this ownership, and opened its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924.2 It is part of Saks Incorporated.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1898Founded1

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Saks Fifth Avenue SF main entrance
Photo: BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Saks Fifth Avenue (colloquially Saks) is an upmarket American department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, D.C., and expanded into Manhattan with its Herald Square store in 1902. Saks was bought by the Gimbels department store chain in 1923 and expanded nationwide during this ownership, and opened its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in 1924. Gimbels and Saks were acquired by Brown & Williamson in 1973, and transferred to sister company Batus Inc. in 1980. While Gimbels was liquidated in 1987, Saks was sold to Investcorp in 1990. Saks Off 5th was established as a Saks clearance store the same year, and has since evolved into an off-price store chain. Saks was acquired by Proffitt's, Inc. (renamed Saks, Inc.) in 1998.2

Corporate structure

Saks Fifth Avenue is part of a group headed by Saks Incorporated. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Founded by Andrew Saks in 1898, in New York City.1

Early history

In 1867, brothers Isadore and Andrew Saks established the men's clothing store, A. Saks & Co. The company occupied a storefront in the Avenue House Hotel building at 517 (300–308) 7th Street, N.W., in what is still Washington's downtown shopping district. Saks offered his goods at one price only and offered refunds on merchandise returns. Saks was also known for its "forceful and interesting, but strictly truthful" newspaper advertising, according to the Washington Evening Star, including a two-page spread, large for that time, in that newspaper on April 4, 1898. In 1887, Saks acquired began building a new location on the site of the old Avenue Hotel Building at 7th and Market Space (now United States Navy Memorial Plaza).

By 1896, Saks and Co. had stores in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia; New York City; and Indianapolis, in addition to Washington, D.C., where, Saks called itself "Washington's Wonderful Store".

20th-century history

Saks opened its New York City Herald Square on 34th Street and Broadway in 1902. Andrew Saks ran the New York store as a family business with his brother Isadore, and his sons Horace and William. Following Andrew Saks' death in 1912, his son Horace took over the company's management.

Gimbels ownership

In 1923, Saks & Co. merged with Gimbel Brothers, Inc., owned by a cousin of Horace Saks, Bernard Gimbel, operating as a separate autonomous subsidiary. In September 1924, the two opened a location architected by Starrett & van Vleck the Saks Fifth Avenue Building. The location acquired a full-block avenue frontage south of St. Patrick's Cathedral, facing what would become Rockefeller Center.

1920s - 1930s

Following Horace Saks' death in 1926, Adam Gimbel became president of Saks Fifth Avenue in 1926. The company then expanded, opening seasonal resort branches in Palm Beach (1926), Atlantic City (1927), Lincoln Road in Miami Beach (1929), Southampton on Long Island (1931), Newport, Rhode Island (1935), Sun Valley, Idaho and Westbury, L.I. (1936), and Greenwich, Connecticut (1937).

In 1929, Saks opened its first full-line, year-round flagship store in Chicago. Six years later, the flagship store relocated to a larger location. By the end of the 1930s, Saks Fifth Avenue had a total of 10 stores – the two urban flagships in New York and Chicago, and eight resort stores.

1940s - 1960s

During World War II, Saks opened Navy and Army shops in New Haven, Connecticut, and Princeton, New Jersey, and after the war turned the small branches into University Shops, catering to the Ivy League communities there.

By 1940, Saks opened two additional urban flagship stores: in Beverly Hills, and in Detroit. Three more downtown stores opened between 1949 and 1952, including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Read the full text

Saks Fifth Avenue's first department store in a mall opened in 1954, at Sunrise Center, now The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale. Additional locations opened in malls through the 1990s.

A few of the new suburban stores were freestanding in suburbs that had a significant downtown shopping district, such as in White Plains, New York (1954), and both Garden City, Long Island, and Surfside, near Miami in 1962. Additional stores were built in downtown locations, such as New Orleans, Boston, and Minneapolis.

More University Shops opened, one near Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., another in Ann Arbor, Michigan (1960).

1990s - 2020s

More expansion followed through in the 1990s in Texas, Florida and California. Plans to open in Mexico City were cancelled following the Mexican peso crisis in 1995. California-based I. Magnin closed in 1995, allowing Saks acquired former I. Magnin locations following the latter's closing in 1995, allowing for expansion into San Diego's Fashion Valley and Carmel. The company opened an additional set of downtown locations in areas such as Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and San Diego's La Jolla in California, and in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Charleston, South Carolina.

In Texas, Saks acquired three Texas locations where Marshall Field's was exiting. In 1997 Saks moved its main Houston store from the Saks Pavilion to The Galleria and added a new location at Town & Country. In the Dallas Galleria, Saks moved within the mall to a larger location. In addition to the former Field's locations, Saks Austin opened in 1997 and Fort Worth in 2000.

In Florida in the 1990s, seven Saks Fifth Avenue stores opened, for a total of 11 stores by the end of the decade, adding Palm Beach Gardens, Naples, Fort Myers, Orlando, Sarasota, Tampa and doubled the size of its Boca Raton store.

21st-century history

In 2004, Saks saw an annual sales growth rate of 7.7% on a same-store basis, but was underperforming Neiman Marcus (+17%) and Nordstrom (+10%). In Southern California, analysts said that Saks was "struggling to maintain its cachet" against the two competitors and Bloomingdales. On October 1, Saks announced the closing of eight underperforming stores: Pasadena, Palos Verdes, Mission Viejo, La Jolla and Carmel in California, Garden City NY, Hilton Head SC, and Downtown Minneapolis.

In August 2007, the United States Postal Service began an experimental program selling the plus ZIP code extension to businesses. The first company to do so was Saks Fifth Avenue, which received the ZIP code of 10022-7463 ("SHOE", on a U.S. touch-tone keypad) for the eighth-floor shoe department in its flagship Fifth Avenue store.

During the 2007–2009 recession, Saks had to cut prices and profit margins, thus according to Reuters "training shoppers to expect discounts. It took three years before it could start selling at closer to full price".

As of 2013, the New York flagship store, whose real estate value was estimated between $800 million and over $1 billion at the time, generated around 20% of Saks' annual sales at $620 million, with other stores being less profitable according to analysts.

In January 2026, Marc Metrick resigned as chief executive of the company with immediate effect. He was replaced by executive chairman Richard Baker, who will hold both positions.

After a 2026 restructuring, many locations will close, leaving the chain with 13 stores. The following Saks locations will close permanently:

Walt Whitman (Huntington Station, New York)

American Dream (East Rutherford, New Jersey)

Bala Plaza (Philadelphia)

Tysons Galleria (McLean, Virginia)

Wisconsin Avenue (Chevy Chase, Maryland)

Stony Point Fashion Park (Richmond, Virginia)

Triangle Town Center (Raleigh, North Carolina)

The Summit (Birmingham, Alabama)

Shops at Canal Place (New Orleans)

University Town Center (Sarasota, Florida)

Beachwood Place (Beachwood, Ohio)

Polaris Fashion Place (Columbus, Ohio)

Michigan Avenue (Chicago)

Plaza Frontenac (St. Louis, Missouri)

North Star Mall (San Antonio, Texas)

Utica Square (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

Fashion Show (Las Vegas)

Biltmore Fashion Park (Phoenix)

South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California)

The Gardens El Paseo (Palm Desert, California)

These locations will remain operating for now:

Wilshire Blvd. (Beverly Hills, California)

Greenwich Avenue (Greenwich, Connecticut)

Town Center at Boca Raton (Boca Raton, Florida)

Bal Harbour (Miami)

Brickell (Miami)

Dadeland (Miami)

Waterside Shops (Naples, Florida)

The Gardens Mall (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida)

Phipps Plaza (Atlanta)

Prudential Center Boylston Street (Boston)

Somerset Collection (Troy, Michigan)

Fifth Avenue (New York City)

The Galleria Uptown/Westheimer Rd (Houston)

Other former locations

The Mall at Short Hills, Short Hills, New Jersey

The Shops at Riverside, Hackensack, New Jersey

Springfield/Millburn Avenue, Springfield, New Jersey

From Wikipedia’s article on Saks Fifth Avenue, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Saks Fifth Avenue, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Products and brands

Saks–34th Street

Saks-34th Street was a fashion-focused middle market department store at 1293-1311 Broadway on Herald Square. The building, built in 1902, had seven stories and was designed by Buchman & Fox. The store was spun off from Saks & Company when that upscale retailer moved to Fifth Avenue, a location that Saks Fifth Avenue maintains to this day. The newly renamed Saks-34th Street was sold to Bernard F. Gimbel, and became a part of the New York division of Gimbels (later Manhattan Mall), and a sky bridge across 33rd Street connected the second floors of both flagship buildings. In the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street, the facade of Saks-34th Street is shown in a scene that focuses on the Gimbel's flagship store. The store closed in 1965, citing poor layouts, no escalators, a confused identity, and outdated facade. After Gimbels closed the division, the first floor of the building was used as a Christmas season annex for Gimbel's before being sold to the E. J. Korvette chain. The building was remodeled into the Herald Center in 1985. As of 2016, the primary tenant is H&M, following another remodel.

Beverly Hills

The original Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills, California, at 9600 Wilshire Boulevard, was designed by the architectural firm Parkinson and Parkinson, with interiors by Paul R. Williams. The store opened in 1938. The store saw success upon opening and subsequently expanded to almost 74,000 square feet (6,900 m2) and employ 500 people. Williams created an interior reminiscent of his designs for luxurious private residences, with rooms lit by indirect lamps and footlights focused on the clothes. New departments for furs, corsets, gifts and debutante dresses were added in the 1940 expansion.

The store relocated to the adjacent 9570 Wilshire Boulevard in 2024, and the original location will be converted into a mixed-use development by Hudson's Bay Company.

From Wikipedia’s article on Saks Fifth Avenue, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

Acquisition by Brown & Williamson and BATUS, Inc

In 1973, tobacco conglomerate, Brown & Williamson acquired the Gimbels chain, including Saks Fifth Avenue brand. In 1990, Brown & Williamson, under the name BATUS, sold Saks Fifth Avenue for $1.5 billion.

Acquisition by Investcorp and Proffitt's

Also in 1990, the company launched Saks Off 5th, an outlet store offshoot of the main brand, with 107 stores worldwide by 2016.

In 1998, Proffitt's, Inc., the parent company of Proffitt's and other department stores, acquired Saks Holdings, Inc. Upon completing the acquisition, Proffitt's, Inc., changed its name to Saks, Inc.

Acquisition by Hudson's Bay Company

In July 2013, Canada-based Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the oldest commercial corporation in North America and owner of the competing chain Lord & Taylor, announced it would acquire Saks Fifth Avenue's parent company for $2.9 billion.

Read the full text

In 2015 Saks began a $250 million, three-year restoration of its Fifth Avenue flagship store. In October 2015, Saks announced a new location in Greenwich, Connecticut. In autumn 2015, Saks announced it would replace its existing store at the Houston Galleria with a new store.

On January 15, 2021, Saks Fifth Avenue unveiled a 54,000-square-foot (5,000 m2) space on the fifth floor of its New York flagship, branded Barneys at Saks. The collaboration is aimed at continuing Barneys New York tradition of unearthing and promoting emerging designers. On January 25, Saks launched the first standalone Barneys at Saks store in a 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) location in Greenwich, Connecticut. This marked the first time Saks had offered men's clothing and furnishings in that market. In March, HBC and growth capital investor, Insight Partners, established Saks Fifth Avenue's ecommerce business as a stand-alone entity, known as "Saks". Insight Partners made a $500 million minority equity investment in Saks. The retailer's 39-store fleet operates separately as an entity referred to as "SFA," which remained wholly owned by HBC. At the time of the separation, HBC named Marc Metrick, CEO of Saks, the ecommerce business. Metrick was previously president of Saks Fifth Avenue since 2015.

In April, Saks announced that it would close all 27 of its fur salons, among which New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Beverly Hills, by the end of January 2022. The company also said that by January 2023, it would stop sales of products made from fur of wild animals or from animals raised for their fur. In August, the company announced a collaboration with WeWork to convert some Saks spaces to co-working locations. In June 2022, Saks announced that it would convert the original 1938 store building in Beverly Hills, 9600 Wilshire, into offices and apartments. Saks Beverly Hills continued to operate from the former I. Magnin and Barneys buildings, which had previously been incorporated into the store complex.

Saks Global/Exemplar Luxury Group

In July 2024 Saks announced that it planned to acquire rival retailer Neiman Marcus in a reported $2.65 billion merger. The acquisition was finalised in December 2024 and Saks Fifth Avenue became part of the new holding company Saks Global. Amazon invested $475 million into Saks’ acquisition of Neiman Marcus.

Bankruptcy

On January 14, 2026, Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling with heavy debt relying on its acquisition and merger of Neiman Marcus. The company also blamed a rapid consumer shift in luxury goods due to inflating prices. Amazon filed an objection to Saks Global’s bankruptcy financing plan, citing the fact that Saks failed to hold up their agreement and worried that bankruptcy will push Amazon further down the repayment pecking order. The company reemerged from bankruptcy as Exemplar Luxury Group.

From Wikipedia’s article on Saks Fifth Avenue, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1898Founded Founded in New York City1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5