TsUM

Muir & Mirrielees Co.

In 1857 merchants Andrew Muir (1817–1899) and Archibald Mirrielees (1797–1877), who had arrived in St. Petersburg separately, founded the “Muir and Mirrielees” Trading Company. Archibald Mirrielees was resident in St. Petersburg from 1822. In 1843 he established his own company, one of the most significant Anglo-Russian merchant houses.

In the 1880s the company transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow and acquired a building for their haberdashery shop in Theatre Square. Their new building was erected there in 1908 in the Gothic Revival style with some modern elements. The project was designed by the famous Russian architect Roman Klein. “Muir and Mirrielees” was the first and the largest department store in the last days of the Russian Empire. Offering clothes, shoes, jewelry, perfumery, and toys, the store attracted the highest public interest: “In the eyes of the Muscovites 'Muir and Mirrielees' is a kind of exhibition of everything that was on sale in the capital, be it for the rich and the high society, or for the middle-class customers" wrote one of the contemporaries. The store delivered throughout the Russian empire.

The company established a furniture factory and other stores (Торговый дом Хомякова (in Russian), Маросейка (in Russian)). The company was nationalised during the Russian Revolution and the assets confiscated in 1918 by the Bolsheviks, who renamed "Muir & Mirrielees", first to "MosTorg" in 1922 and later to TsUM.

In 2013 the European Capital Investment Fund, owner of the majority of TsUM's shares, forced a buyout from minority shareholders; the company was subsequently delisted from the Moscow Exchange.