RESEARCH STARTER

Kohl's

Kohl's is a prominent national retailer headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, known for its omnichannel approach that integrates physical locations, online platforms, and telephone sales to enhance customer experience. Founded in 1962 by Maxwell Kohl, a Polish immigrant who initially established a supermarket chain, Kohl's evolved into a department store format that prioritized customer service and efficient inventory management, allowing it to offer competitive pricing. The company went public in 1992 and has since expanded to over 1,100 stores across 49 states, focusing on middle-income consumers by providing national brands at lower prices than traditional department stores.

Kohl's has embraced modern retail trends, launching private-label brands like FLX, which features sustainably produced athleisure wear, and partnering with Sephora to enhance its beauty offerings. The company has also faced challenges, including investor pressures and declining sales during the pandemic, prompting leadership changes and strategic shifts to maintain market share. Additionally, Kohl's is committed to community engagement through its philanthropic initiative, Kohl's Cares, which funds health and wellness programs for children and families. The retailer is also dedicated to sustainability, aligning its operations with ethical sourcing practices and reducing its carbon footprint as part of its broader corporate responsibility efforts.

Full Article

Company information

  • Date founded: 1962
  • Industry: Retail
  • Corporate headquarters: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
  • Type: Public

Overview

Kohl’s is a national retailer based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. The company is an omnichannel retailer, a retailer that has developed many integrated approaches to sales. The omnichannel approach seeks to provide seamless shopping experiences in physical locations, by telephone, and online. The first Kohl’s department store opened in 1962 in Brookfield, Wisconsin. When the company went public in 1992, all its stores were located in the Midwest. In 2003, with the opening of more than two dozen stores in California, Kohl’s stores were located across the contiguous United States.

History

The department store chain was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl. He saved his earnings from factory jobs in the Milwaukee area. In 1927, when he was twenty-six years old, he had saved enough to open a small grocery store. He established more locations over the years, even opening stores during the Great Depression. He created innovative services such as the first in-store bakery and deli, which were features of the first supermarket he opened in 1946. By 1970, he had grown the supermarket chain to forty-eight stores throughout Wisconsin.

By then, Kohl was already growing a chain of department stores. He had opened his first department store after he experienced poor customer service while buying a shirt. He improved upon the department store model of the early 1960s using strategies he had learned and used in his grocery stores. He structured his stores to be more customer-oriented and used more efficient inventory management practices. This helped him sell goods at lower prices. His pricing lured customers away from high-end stores, and the better quality of his goods drew shoppers from discount stores. These strategies enabled him to quickly grow his chain of stores.

Kohl was able to sell merchandise at lower prices than other department stores because he introduced increased efficiency methods from the grocery business to retail. Kohl grew the chain of stores and operated the company with his sons, Herbert and Sidney. The family business expanded to include multiple operations. They built two shopping malls in 1967 and also opened drug and liquor stores.

In 1972, Kohl and his sons sold a controlling interest in the department store business to Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B&W), a subsidiary of the British American Tobacco Company. At that time, the family had fifty-six supermarkets, six department stores, three drug stores, and three liquor stores. Maxwell Kohl retired, but his son Herbert remained president of Kohl’s for several years.

Kohl’s Department Stores continued to expand. B&W sold off the Kohl’s Food Stores in 1983 and, three years later, decided to sell the chain of forty department stores as well. William Kellogg and other investors bought the chain and set about expanding it. In 1988, the company acquired the chain of twenty-six MainStreet department stores from Federated Department Stores, which introduced the Kohl’s brand to substantially larger markets, notably in Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis–St. Paul. Company leadership cited the potential of the Midwest market as important to its expansion plans. In 1992, the company went public with an initial public offering and joined the S&P 500 in 1998.

In 2003, the chain expanded to the West Coast when it opened twenty-eight stores in California. By the mid-2020s, the retail chain included more than 1,100 stores in forty-nine states. The only state to which Kohl’s had not expanded was Hawaii.

In 2024, Kohl’s partnered with Babies “R” Us to begin selling brands like Graco, Carter’s, and Fisher-Price. The same year, the chief executive officer of crafts store Michaels, Ashley Buchanan, took over as Kohl’s CEO. However, in 2025, Kohl’s announced its closing of over twenty-five stores in fifteen states. The company also announced plans to lay off about 10 percent of its corporate employees. In 2025, Kohl’s named Michael J. Bender interim CEO before later appointing him permanently to the role, succeeding Ashley Buchanan.

Impact

Kohl’s straddles the middle ground between department store and discount retailer. It traditionally appealed to middle-income households by offering national brands at lower prices than those at other department stores. The company did so by keeping overhead, or operating expenses, low and by running frequent and expansive sales.

In 2024, Kohl’s employed over 87,000 associates. The company generated nearly $18 billion in revenue in 2022 and was ranked one hundred eighty-third in the 2022 Fortune 500. In 2025, it reported about $15.5 billion in revenue, about 5 percent slump in comparison to the previous year. Michelle Gass served as chief executive officer and director until Tom Kingsbury took over in late 2022. In late 2020, the company announced an increased focus on serving customers’ active and casual lifestyles. Gass noted the turbulence the retail industry was experiencing during the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession and framed this as an opportunity to increase market share. The company cited its rewards programs—Kohl’s Cash, Kohl’s Rewards, and Kohl’s Charge Card—as keys to maintaining customer satisfaction and engagement. Kohl’s also announced the launch of FLX, its first private-label athleisure brand. FLX, which hit the market in early 2021, consisted of sustainably sourced and produced clothing and accessories for men and women. Sephora shops opened within Kohl’s stores in 2021, and by 2023, the partnership with Sephora expanded into seven new states. In 2024, Kohl’s built 140 small-format Sephora stores at Kohl’s shops, and in 2025 it announced more than hundred additional shops to complete the rollout into more than 1,100 stores. This resulted in Sephora generating more than $1.8 billion in sales in 2024.

Leadership of the company faced a challenge from a group of investors in February 2021. Net sales in 2020 fell more than 20 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, net sales were virtually flat from 2011 to 2019, while the company’s operating profit margin fell by nearly half. Ancora Holdings, 4010 Capital, Legion Partners Asset Management, and Macellum Advisors threatened to take over the twelve-person board by nominating nine directors. The group said directors were paid too much, and the existing directors either had been on the board for too long or lacked retail experience. Both sides agreed two directors nominated by the group would join the board in May, and Frank Sika, chairman of Kohl’s, would leave after thirty-four years on the board.

The company also developed a philanthropic program, Kohl’s Cares, that sold children’s books and toys. The net profits were donated to support healthy community initiatives. On a national level, the company partnered with Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The focus was on improving the health and wellness of children and families. Kohl’s also maintained hometown partnerships in Milwaukee communities with organizations, including youth and family centers, arts organizations, and Discovery World, which provided hands-on activities using technology in its Kohl’s Design It! Lab. The Kohl’s Design It! Mobile Lab took these programs to schools and community events. The company’s third category of philanthropic work consisted of supporting hospitals across the country. In addition to supporting organizations, Kohl’s encouraged associates to volunteer with nonprofit organizations in their communities. The company also donated funding to the organizations for every volunteer hour. By the mid-2020s, Kohl’s Cares had given over $875 million to non-profit organizations.

The company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and securing ethical sourcing for its products. Kohl’s was a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Company efforts included setting goals and charting progress in reducing energy use and emissions, reducing waste generation, reducing the use of chemicals, and using more recycled materials and sustainable cotton.


Bibliography

“About Kohl’s.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/about-kohls. Accessed 18 May 2026.

D’Innocenzio, Anne. “Kohl’s to Close 27 Stores by April as Struggling Department Stores Works to Improve Sales.” AP News, 11 Jan. 2025, apnews.com/article/kohls-macys-stores-closing-6ac0d2b9440ae59b5d96dbd3e0ce8c5b. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Howland, Daphne. “Will Kohl’s Have to Close Stores?” Retail Dive, 27 Nov. 2024, www.retaildive.com/news/kohls-close-stores-2025-analysts/734169/. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Jacobs, Jenna. “Kohl’s Corporation.” Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, emke.uwm.edu/entry/kohls-corporation. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Boosts Bottom Line to $272 Million in 2025 amid Sales Decline.” Modaes, 10 Mar. 2026, www.modaes.com/global/companies/kohls-shrinks-sales-but-more-than-doubles-its-profit-in-2025-to-272-million. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Cares.” Kohl’s, www.kohls.com/sale-event/kohl-s-cares.jsp. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Corp.” Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/KSS/company-people. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Environmental Sustainability.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/environmental-sustainability. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Maxwell Kohl.” Immigrant Learning Center, July 2021, www.ilctr.org/about-immigrants/immigrant-entrepreneurs/hall-of-fame/maxwell-kohl. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Meet Our Leaders.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/leadership. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Philanthropy at Kohl’s.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/philanthropy. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Randle, Wilma. “Kohl’s to Expand MainStreet.” Chicago Tribune, 8 Aug. 2021, www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-02-22-8903070444-story.html. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Wahba, Phil. “Kohl’s CEO Wins Truce with Activist Shareholders.” Fortune, 14 Apr. 2021, fortune.com/2021/04/14/kohls-ceo-michelle-gass-activist-investors-shareholders. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Full Article

Company information

  • Date founded: 1962
  • Industry: Retail
  • Corporate headquarters: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
  • Type: Public

Overview

Kohl’s is a national retailer based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. The company is an omnichannel retailer, a retailer that has developed many integrated approaches to sales. The omnichannel approach seeks to provide seamless shopping experiences in physical locations, by telephone, and online. The first Kohl’s department store opened in 1962 in Brookfield, Wisconsin. When the company went public in 1992, all its stores were located in the Midwest. In 2003, with the opening of more than two dozen stores in California, Kohl’s stores were located across the contiguous United States.

History

The department store chain was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl. He saved his earnings from factory jobs in the Milwaukee area. In 1927, when he was twenty-six years old, he had saved enough to open a small grocery store. He established more locations over the years, even opening stores during the Great Depression. He created innovative services such as the first in-store bakery and deli, which were features of the first supermarket he opened in 1946. By 1970, he had grown the supermarket chain to forty-eight stores throughout Wisconsin.

By then, Kohl was already growing a chain of department stores. He had opened his first department store after he experienced poor customer service while buying a shirt. He improved upon the department store model of the early 1960s using strategies he had learned and used in his grocery stores. He structured his stores to be more customer-oriented and used more efficient inventory management practices. This helped him sell goods at lower prices. His pricing lured customers away from high-end stores, and the better quality of his goods drew shoppers from discount stores. These strategies enabled him to quickly grow his chain of stores.

Kohl was able to sell merchandise at lower prices than other department stores because he introduced increased efficiency methods from the grocery business to retail. Kohl grew the chain of stores and operated the company with his sons, Herbert and Sidney. The family business expanded to include multiple operations. They built two shopping malls in 1967 and also opened drug and liquor stores.

In 1972, Kohl and his sons sold a controlling interest in the department store business to Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B&W), a subsidiary of the British American Tobacco Company. At that time, the family had fifty-six supermarkets, six department stores, three drug stores, and three liquor stores. Maxwell Kohl retired, but his son Herbert remained president of Kohl’s for several years.

Kohl’s Department Stores continued to expand. B&W sold off the Kohl’s Food Stores in 1983 and, three years later, decided to sell the chain of forty department stores as well. William Kellogg and other investors bought the chain and set about expanding it. In 1988, the company acquired the chain of twenty-six MainStreet department stores from Federated Department Stores, which introduced the Kohl’s brand to substantially larger markets, notably in Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis–St. Paul. Company leadership cited the potential of the Midwest market as important to its expansion plans. In 1992, the company went public with an initial public offering and joined the S&P 500 in 1998.

In 2003, the chain expanded to the West Coast when it opened twenty-eight stores in California. By the mid-2020s, the retail chain included more than 1,100 stores in forty-nine states. The only state to which Kohl’s had not expanded was Hawaii.

In 2024, Kohl’s partnered with Babies “R” Us to begin selling brands like Graco, Carter’s, and Fisher-Price. The same year, the chief executive officer of crafts store Michaels, Ashley Buchanan, took over as Kohl’s CEO. However, in 2025, Kohl’s announced its closing of over twenty-five stores in fifteen states. The company also announced plans to lay off about 10 percent of its corporate employees. In 2025, Kohl’s named Michael J. Bender interim CEO before later appointing him permanently to the role, succeeding Ashley Buchanan.

Impact

Kohl’s straddles the middle ground between department store and discount retailer. It traditionally appealed to middle-income households by offering national brands at lower prices than those at other department stores. The company did so by keeping overhead, or operating expenses, low and by running frequent and expansive sales.

In 2024, Kohl’s employed over 87,000 associates. The company generated nearly $18 billion in revenue in 2022 and was ranked one hundred eighty-third in the 2022 Fortune 500. In 2025, it reported about $15.5 billion in revenue, about 5 percent slump in comparison to the previous year. Michelle Gass served as chief executive officer and director until Tom Kingsbury took over in late 2022. In late 2020, the company announced an increased focus on serving customers’ active and casual lifestyles. Gass noted the turbulence the retail industry was experiencing during the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession and framed this as an opportunity to increase market share. The company cited its rewards programs—Kohl’s Cash, Kohl’s Rewards, and Kohl’s Charge Card—as keys to maintaining customer satisfaction and engagement. Kohl’s also announced the launch of FLX, its first private-label athleisure brand. FLX, which hit the market in early 2021, consisted of sustainably sourced and produced clothing and accessories for men and women. Sephora shops opened within Kohl’s stores in 2021, and by 2023, the partnership with Sephora expanded into seven new states. In 2024, Kohl’s built 140 small-format Sephora stores at Kohl’s shops, and in 2025 it announced more than hundred additional shops to complete the rollout into more than 1,100 stores. This resulted in Sephora generating more than $1.8 billion in sales in 2024.

Leadership of the company faced a challenge from a group of investors in February 2021. Net sales in 2020 fell more than 20 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, net sales were virtually flat from 2011 to 2019, while the company’s operating profit margin fell by nearly half. Ancora Holdings, 4010 Capital, Legion Partners Asset Management, and Macellum Advisors threatened to take over the twelve-person board by nominating nine directors. The group said directors were paid too much, and the existing directors either had been on the board for too long or lacked retail experience. Both sides agreed two directors nominated by the group would join the board in May, and Frank Sika, chairman of Kohl’s, would leave after thirty-four years on the board.

The company also developed a philanthropic program, Kohl’s Cares, that sold children’s books and toys. The net profits were donated to support healthy community initiatives. On a national level, the company partnered with Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The focus was on improving the health and wellness of children and families. Kohl’s also maintained hometown partnerships in Milwaukee communities with organizations, including youth and family centers, arts organizations, and Discovery World, which provided hands-on activities using technology in its Kohl’s Design It! Lab. The Kohl’s Design It! Mobile Lab took these programs to schools and community events. The company’s third category of philanthropic work consisted of supporting hospitals across the country. In addition to supporting organizations, Kohl’s encouraged associates to volunteer with nonprofit organizations in their communities. The company also donated funding to the organizations for every volunteer hour. By the mid-2020s, Kohl’s Cares had given over $875 million to non-profit organizations.

The company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and securing ethical sourcing for its products. Kohl’s was a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Company efforts included setting goals and charting progress in reducing energy use and emissions, reducing waste generation, reducing the use of chemicals, and using more recycled materials and sustainable cotton.


Bibliography

“About Kohl’s.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/about-kohls. Accessed 18 May 2026.

D’Innocenzio, Anne. “Kohl’s to Close 27 Stores by April as Struggling Department Stores Works to Improve Sales.” AP News, 11 Jan. 2025, apnews.com/article/kohls-macys-stores-closing-6ac0d2b9440ae59b5d96dbd3e0ce8c5b. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Howland, Daphne. “Will Kohl’s Have to Close Stores?” Retail Dive, 27 Nov. 2024, www.retaildive.com/news/kohls-close-stores-2025-analysts/734169/. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Jacobs, Jenna. “Kohl’s Corporation.” Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, emke.uwm.edu/entry/kohls-corporation. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Boosts Bottom Line to $272 Million in 2025 amid Sales Decline.” Modaes, 10 Mar. 2026, www.modaes.com/global/companies/kohls-shrinks-sales-but-more-than-doubles-its-profit-in-2025-to-272-million. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Cares.” Kohl’s, www.kohls.com/sale-event/kohl-s-cares.jsp. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Corp.” Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/KSS/company-people. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Kohl’s Environmental Sustainability.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/environmental-sustainability. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Maxwell Kohl.” Immigrant Learning Center, July 2021, www.ilctr.org/about-immigrants/immigrant-entrepreneurs/hall-of-fame/maxwell-kohl. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Meet Our Leaders.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/leadership. Accessed 18 May 2026.

“Philanthropy at Kohl’s.” Kohl’s, cinnamon-lizard-79yg.squarespace.com/philanthropy. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Randle, Wilma. “Kohl’s to Expand MainStreet.” Chicago Tribune, 8 Aug. 2021, www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-02-22-8903070444-story.html. Accessed 18 May 2026.

Wahba, Phil. “Kohl’s CEO Wins Truce with Activist Shareholders.” Fortune, 14 Apr. 2021, fortune.com/2021/04/14/kohls-ceo-michelle-gass-activist-investors-shareholders. Accessed 18 May 2026.

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