The TJX Companies, Inc. (abbreviated TJX) is an American
multinational off-price department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
corporation, headquartered in
Framingham, Massachusetts
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...
. It was formed as a subsidiary of
Zayre Corp. in 1987, and became the legal successor to Zayre Corp. following a company reorganization in 1989.
, TJX operates
TJ Maxx (in the United States) and
TK Maxx (in Australia and Europe), its flagship store chains, along with
Marshalls,
HomeGoods
HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Midd ...
,
HomeSense, and
Sierra in the United States, and HomeSense, Marshalls, and
Winners in Canada. There are over 4,557 discount stores in the TJX portfolio located in nine countries. TJX ranked No. 80 in the 2024
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. TJX is a publicly listed stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol TJX and has a capital value of $132.27 Billion (August 2024).
History
Zayre
In 1977, the first TJ Maxx store opened in
Auburn, Massachusetts as part of the discount department store chain
Zayre. In June 1987, Zayre established The TJX Companies as a subsidiary. In the first half of 1988, Zayre stores had operating losses of $69 million on sales of $1.4 billion. Observers blamed technological inferiority, poor maintenance, inappropriate pricing, and inventory pileups, and Zayre appeared ripe for takeover. Throughout all this, however, The TJX Companies subsidiary continued to yield a profit. In October 1988, Zayre Corp. decided to focus its energies on TJX. It sold the entire chain of nearly 400 Zayre stores to
Ames Department Stores Inc. In exchange, the company received $431.4 million in cash, a receivable note, and what was then valued at $140 million of Ames cumulative senior convertible preferred stock.
The company continued focus on its core business, spinning off unrelated operations including
BJ's Wholesale Club and
Home Club, leaving it with just one brand, T.J. Maxx.
In June 1989, Zayre Corp. acquired the outstanding minority interest in TJX and merged with the subsidiary, changing its name from Zayre Corp. to The TJX Companies, Inc. in the process. The newly named company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Expansion
In 1990, TJX expanded into an additional store brand division, and at the same time it first went international, as it entered the Canadian market by acquiring the five-store Winners chain.
Two years later, it launched its third brand, HomeGoods, in the United States. TJX's expansion beyond North America came in 1994, when the fourth brand division, T.K. Maxx, was founded in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and then expanded into
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. In 1995, TJX doubled in size when it acquired Marshalls, its fifth brand. T.J. Maxx and Marshalls later became consolidated as two brands under a single division, The Marmaxx Group. The following year, TJX Companies Inc. was added to the
Standard & Poor's
S&P 500
The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...
Composite Index, which consists of 500 of the largest companies in the United States. TJX sold Hit or Miss, a discount mall based clothing store in 1995 as well through an employee leveraged buyout.

TJX launched a sixth brand,
A.J. Wright, in 1998 in the eastern U.S. The brand went national in 2004 when it opened its first stores in California on the west coast. The company's seventh brand division, HomeSense, formed in 2001, was a Canadian brand modeled after the existing US brand, HomeGoods. TJX revenue surpassed $10 billion that year.
In 2002, TJX revenue reached almost $12 billion.
In 2003, TJX acquired an eighth brand division, Bob's Stores, concentrated in
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
. In Canada, TJX began to configure some Winners and HomeSense stores side by side as superstores. The superstores feature open passageways between them, with dual branding. TJX's revenue in 2003 reached over $13 billion.
TJX began to test the side-by-side superstore model in the United States in 2004, combining some of each of the two Marmaxx brand stores with HomeGoods. The company reached 141st position in the 2004
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
rankings, with almost $15 billion in revenue.
That year was also marked by the death of retired Zayre founder Stanley Feldberg.
In April 2008, TJX launched the
HomeSense brand in the UK, with six stores opening throughout May. The brand is more upmarket than its Canadian namesake. Later that year, in August, TJX sold
Bob's Stores to Versa Capital Management and Crystal Capital.
In December 2010, TJX announced that the A.J. Wright stores would be closed, cutting about 4,400 jobs, and that more than half of them would reopen under other company brands.
In December 2012, TJX acquired
Sierra Trading Post, an off-price internet retailer of outdoor gear and apparel. Since its acquisition, the retail chain has opened over 70 brick-and-mortar stores in the United States. The chain rebranded to Sierra in 2019.
In July 2015, TJX acquired the
Trade Secret
A trade secret is a form of intellectual property (IP) comprising confidential information that is not generally known or readily ascertainable, derives economic value from its secrecy, and is protected by reasonable efforts to maintain its conf ...
and Home Secret off-price retail businesses from Australian company
Gazal Corporation Limited. The deal was completed in December. In October, Ernie Herrman was named CEO of the company, replacing
Carol Meyrowitz. He took over in January 2016.
In November 2019, TJX purchased a 25% stake in Russian retailer Familia.
COVID-19 impact
On August 19, 2020, TJX Companies continue to deal with the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
's effect on its business. The company announced that revenues dropped 31% over the months of May, June, and July, primarily due to extensive closures of the shop for around one-third of the period. TJX Companies reported a second-quarter loss of $214 million.
Incidents
Computer systems intrusion
On January 17, 2007, TJX announced that it was the victim of an
unauthorized computer systems intrusion. It discovered in mid-December 2006 that its computer systems were compromised and
customer data was stolen. The hackers accessed a system that stores data on
credit card,
debit card
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...
,
check, and merchandise return transactions. The intrusion was kept confidential as requested by law enforcement. TJX said that it was working with
General Dynamics,
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
and
Deloitte to upgrade computer security.
By the end of March 2007, the number of affected customers had reached 45.7 million, and prompted
credit bureaus to seek legislation requiring retailers to be responsible for compromised customer information saved in their systems. In addition to credit card numbers, personal information such as
social security number
In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to United States nationality law, U.S. citizens, Permanent residence (United States), permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2 ...
s and
driver's license numbers from 451,000 customers were downloaded by the intruders. The breach was possible due to a non-secure
wireless network
A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks, and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables int ...
in one of the stores. Eleven men were charged in the theft, and one (Damon Patrick Toey) pleaded guilty to numerous charges related to the breach. Another,
Jonathan James, professed his innocence and later committed suicide, apparently out of the belief that he was going to be indicted.
The alleged ringleader
Albert Gonzalez, was later indicted in August 2009 with attacking
Heartland Payment Systems, where 130 million records were compromised.
Brands
Current brands
; Operating divisions
[Form 10-Q (Q3 2024]
* Marmaxx (US) – TJ Maxx and Marshalls
* HomeGoods (US) – HomeGoods and Homesense
* Sierra (US) – Sierra
* TJX Canada – Winners, HomeSense, and Marshalls
* TJX International – TK Maxx (UK, Ireland, Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands) and Homesense (UK and Ireland)
Former brands
References
External links
{{Authority control
TJX Companies,
1987 establishments in Massachusetts
Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Retail companies established in 1987
Retail companies of the United Kingdom