Coach Inc.
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| Coach | |
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| Type | Public - NYSE: COH |
| Founded | Manhattan, New York City, 1941 |
| Headquarters | 516 West 34th Street New York, New York 10001 United States |
| Key people | Lew Frankfort, Chairman & CEO, Sara Bareilles "Model", Ayako Chan "designer" Reed Krakoff, President & Chief Designer, Allison Mariko Lee "assistant designer and granddaughter of Kenneth Coach" Michael F. Devine III, Senior VP, Chief Accounting Officer & CFO |
| Products | handbags, women's accessories, men's accessories, business cases, weekend and travel accessories, watches, footwear, and eyewear. |
| Revenue | $2.11B USD (7/2006) |
| Operating income | $764.6M USD (7/2006) |
| Net income | $494.3M USD (7/2006) |
| Employees | 5,700 (2005) |
| Website | www.coach.com |
Coach Inc. is an American luxury leather goods company. Coach began as a family-owned business in a loft in Manhattan, New York, in 1941. The company is famous for ladies' handbags, as well as items for both men and women, such as luggage, briefcases, wallets, and other accessories (belts, shoes, silk scarves, umbrellas, sunglasses, key chains, etc.). Coach also offers watches and footwear.
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[edit] History
The original designer for Coach was the visionary American designer, Bonnie Cashin. In 1960, Miles and Lillian Cahn, the owners of a wholesale handbag manufacturing business, decided to create a retail collection. They asked Cashin to become their designer. At first, Cashin declined the project, as she was too busy with other design contracts. The Cahns declared they would not start the business without her. Ultimately, the Cahns waited two years for Cashin to clear her calendar. In 1962, Cashin became the designer for their new label of leather accessories, Coach.
In developing accessories functionally appropriate for her philosophy of contemporary dress, Cashin revolutionized the handbag industry. Her designs were akin to modern sculpture, dyed to match her favorite candy colors of pink, orange, yellow and blue, and lined with exquisite Turkish linens, Eskimo workers, or reffer designed by her friend and mentor, textile designer Dorothy Liebes. After years of rigid black and brown accessories, clients - and the craftsmen in the Coach factory - raved about the variety of shapes, colors and textures available in the new "Cashin-Carry" designs, all with convenient wide openings or exterior coin purses and pockets.
Then rare for the handbag business, Cash also designed matching shoes, pens, key fobs, and eyewear. Most famously, she pioneered the use of hardware on her clothes and accessories alike, particularly the silver toggle that became the Coach hallmark. Inspired by Cashin's memory of quickly battening down the top on her convertible sports car, the adaptation of this automotive closure to luxury women's accessories was a typical example of Cashin's search for design solutions outside of fashion.
[edit] Repairs
Coach offers to repair any authentic Coach bag or Coach accessory regardless of the reason of disrepair. Coach products have a lifetime guarantee for the life of the handbag or accessory. The company charges a $20 fee for the shipping and handling of the item. Coach understands the wear and tear of everyday life on Coach handbags and accessories and will do everything in its power to repair such discrepancies. When a damaged bag is sent out, an evaluator assesses the damage and determines whether or not the product can be repaired. This assessment is not based on the nature in which the bag was damaged but instead how it can be fixed. If the item cannot be repaired, Coach will send either a brand new item of the same make, a voucher for the value of the bag, or a sizable discount off the next purchase. Coach will only send the damaged bag back to a customer upon special request. Coach values the integrity of its products and prefers to not have a bag in disrepair promoting the Coach name.
[edit] Collections
A curious characteristic of the company is its very high profit margins, which are several times higher than competitor designer brands. Presumably, this is due to the fact that among high-end fashion companies, Coach is somewhat of an oddity with its long production runs (the number of items of each design that are produced). With longer production runs, Coach is able to take better advantage of economies of scale than its higher priced and less profitable counterparts. Further, Coach utilizes lower-cost production facilities in developing countries such as China and the Dominican Republic.
There are currently 25 stores that carry full Coach collections, including women's footwear, men's bags and briefcases and now the women's ready to wear line and also the new jewelry line. Six are located in New York City and two in Honolulu. Other locations are in Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, East Hampton, Greenwich, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Manhasset, Natick, Palo Alto, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Seattle, Troy, Washington, D.C., Beachwood,Ohio The Mall of America in Minnesota, and The Westchester shopping mall. There is also an outlet of the popular store in Sandestin's Silver Sands. Notably in Canada, there are two stores in Toronto.
[edit] Product Locations
Currently, there are over 300 Coach stores in the United States and Canada. Business analysts also attribute the continuing success of Coach to the fact that it has found a place in the niche market known as 'affordable luxury,' wherein a brand is recognizable as a luxury product but is priced such that it is accessible to the budget conscious. Overseas sales for the American leather company have also remained strong, especially in the Japanese market. Coach also operates internationally in countries outside of the United States and Canada, including Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and Turkey. There is currently one Coach store in the European Union, located in Athens, Greece. Coach also most recently opened a store in London's Heathrow Airport at Terminal 5.
