Coach

For my next blog I will talk about one of the most ridiculously expensive name brands out there. Coach is a company that sells mainly purses but also has many other accessories such as wallets and backpacks, scarfs, hats, and even shoes. The company was founded in 1941, and started out as a family owed business. Throughout the 1940s and the 1950s the company did not make too much profit but they were not too concern about it at the time. In 1960, the idea to use leather to create the purses was discovered. At that time, women's purses were just made of cardboard that were covered in thin leather, this was the first invention of high quality, long lasting purses. In 1961, The Cahn's bought out the factory with borrowed money and took control of Coach. For a while Coach stuck to an elegant style and stayed more reserved with the company. In 1969, the came out with the "bucket bag" and the fringe "shimmy" bag. In the early 1980s, Coach was dong very well. They were producing several different products and they were occupying 4 stories in a building on 34th street. They were even paying their employees a couple dollars more than other factories at the time because they believed in a good relationship between employers and employees. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Coach decided to make a little change and try selling their products out of a department store. This was such a great success that they were selling out of all the products and they could not keep up with the demand. They weren't quite ready to move from where they were to somewhere bigger so they stopped the department store idea and continued to keep the business on a personal level. They even started inviting some long time customers to the factory to see how the product was produced. In 1983, the Cahn family decided to buy 300 acres of land and have a farm named the Coach Farm. But by 1985 they realized that none of of the familys children wanted to take over the company so they sold it.

When they made a deal with Sara Lee who was also a food company, they sold it for an estimated amount of 30 million dollars. So they took 1 million of the profits and split it between 200 of the long lasting employees. When the new owner Lew Frankfort took over the company it only went upward from there. He opened many stores and sales went up drastically. By November of 1986 there were 12 stores. Since then the company has continued to evolve and become better and better. By 2012 there were about 500 stores open in the U.S and Canada and 300 stores in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

I do own a few coach purses, but I did not buy one of them at full price for the simple fact that the product is extremely expensive. A medium sized handbag is around $500, and for a small wallet to put inside that handbag, $100. I find this outrageous, therefore I look for sales when I go into a coach store. I do enjoy the product though, the quality is very good and the service in the stores is very good. I found the history of this brand extremely interesting, I always like it when a company starts out as a small family owned business and grows to be a world wide.



http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/genWCM-10551-10051-en-/Coach_US/CompanyInformation/InvestorRelations/CompanyProfile

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/coach-inc-history/