GORDON JEWELRY CORPORATION. Gordon jewelry Corporation,
a jewellery retail merchant with headquarters in Houston, was once the
second-largest chain within the nation, exceeded in range of stores and volume
sold-out solely by Zale jewellery Corporation. Meyer Morris Gordon, UN agency
supported the business, immigrated to TX from Baltic Republic around 1894. once
living together with his family for a time in East Columbia and town, Gordon
opened a general merchandise business in Houston in 1905, mercantilism
groceries, shoes, and hardware.
His 1st jewellery business was a partnership
with Denis McGaughon referred to as McGaughon and Gordon, that opened at
Houston in 1916. This store took the name Gordon's once warfare I, once the
founder bought out his partner and was afterwards joined by his sons and
relative-in-law within the close corporation. the primary Gordon's jewelry
dealer outside Houston was established at Beaumont in 1934, and in 1936 the
firm dilated outside the state, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1939 Gordon's
achieved $1 million in sales, and in 1946 the firm rapt to its 1st residential
district|community} searching area location in Houston. Between 1946 and 1950
the corporate opened 5 a lot of stores, and thenceforth 3 to 6 stores were established
often annually. Gordon's began to integrate its holdings once 1956, with the
acquisition of different native and regional jewellery stores, and over
subsequent thirty years a complete of 450 to five hundred Gordon's stores
opened (including the primary store opened in Puerto RICO, in 1960). the
corporate went public in 1961 and purchased the Star Engraving Company of
Houston in 1969. web earnings exaggerated from $1 million in 1964 to $10
million by 1974. By 1982 the firm used seven,250 staff and operated 681 units
in 44 states and Puerto RICO. within the Nineteen Eighties Gordon's
sought-after to expand its market by giving jewellery valued from $5 to
$100,000. The firm used a style employees placed in big apple and Houston, and
purchased gold, diamonds, and precious stones.
These it equipped to freelance
contractors for manufacture in step with company specifications, thereby
achieving lower unit prices and personalized styling. the corporate reorganised
into 2 divisions. One division offered diamonds, watches, gold jewellery, and
nonjewelry things to a middle-income patronage. the opposite division-modeled
once native or regional stores like Sweeney and Company of Houston and city
Brothers of Dallas-catered to middle and higher financial gain customers,
mercantilism china, crystal, and silver additionally to jewellery. Initially,
the firm additionally maintained a catalog-showroom element, that it out of
print in 1987. Gordon's provided a management-training program for its workers.
It additionally offered a profit-sharing program (beginning in 1953), and a
stock-purchase set up (beginning in 1982). A stock-option set up for officers
and key workers was introduced in 1976. the corporate was noninheritable by its chief challenger, Zale jewellery
Corporation, for $315,000,000 in 1989. Company founder M. M. Gordon is
remembered in Houston for establishing the Meyer and UN agency Sampson Gordon
Camp on one hundred fifty acres southwest of Houston, and therefore the Gordon
Chapel at Houston's Temple letter of the alphabet Israel.
