| Former type | Public KK |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Merged with Matsuzakaya |
| Successor | Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co., Ltd. |
| Founded | Kyoto, Japan (April 16, 1920) |
| Defunct | February 28, 2010 |
| Headquarters | Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan |
| Products | Daimaru department stores Daimaru Peacock supermarkets |
| Revenue | 467.0 billion yen (2009) |
| Employees | 3,292 (2007) |
| Website | daimaru.co.jp/english/index.html |
Daimaru (大丸) is a Japanese department stores chain, principally located in the Kansai region of Japan. The chain is operated by Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, a subsidiary of J. Front Retailing. At one time Daimaru was an independent company, The Daimaru, Inc. (株式会社大丸), headquartered in Chūō-ku, Osaka.[1]
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Daimaru traces its history to Dai-Monjiya, a dry goods store in Kyoto founded by Shimomura Hikoemon Masahiro in 1717. The name "Daimaru" was first used for a store in Nagoya called Daimaruya, which opened in 1728.
The chain was incorporated in 1907 and reincorporated as Daimaru Dry Goods K.K. in 1920, changing its name to Daimaru in 1928. For several years in the 1960s, Daimaru was the largest retailer in Japan. In the late 1970s, Daimaru was the first Japanese department store to open in Thailand. However, its branches in Hong Kong closed in 1998,[2] and other branches in Singapore, Melbourne (in direct competition with Myer and David Jones Limited) and the Gold Coast of Australia closed in 2003 after nearly a decade of low profits.
In 1960, Daimaru established a subsidiary called Peacock Sangyo. Now known as Daimaru Peacock, it operates 37 supermarkets in the Greater Tokyo Area and 27 in the Kansai region.
In 1998, Daimaru entered into a partnership with the French grand couturier Dominique Sirop to produce Dominique Sirop for Daimaru, a high fashion prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) label.