Dillard’s, Inc. is a US-based luxury fashion retailer founded by William T. Dillard in 1938 at the age of 24. William started the company with $8,000 of borrowed capital from his father.
In the 1950s, William began purchasing department stores that were suffering from financial trouble. The company was one of the first to develop a credit subsidiary for customers and implement a digital inventory and sales system.
The company established its headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1964 and went public in 1972. In the 50 years from 1938 to 1988, Dillard’s acquired 98 stores in southern and mid-western states, followed by 23 J.B. Ivey’s stores in 1990 and 103 Mercantile stores in 1998. By 2020, the conglomerate operated nearly 300 stores covering over half of the United States.
The company began to suffer as a result of the 2008 global recession and sold its underperforming stores, ticket sales operation, credit investment companies and travel agency. During that time, the company began to receive a great deal of negative press regarding its family leadership, as its shareholders and investors accused them of maintaining a nepotistic attitude.
Founder William T. Dillard passed away in 2002, and the company was taken over by his son, William T. Dillard II, who currently acts as chairman and CEO of the company.
- Family name: Dillard family
- Sector: Consumer Products & Retail
- Founded: 1938
- Founder: William T. Dillard
- Country: United States
- Company headquarters: Little Rock, Arkansas
- Chairman & CEO: William T. Dillard II
- Revenue: US$6.8 billion
- Family ownership: 99.4%
- Employees: 40,000
- Website: https://www.dillards.com/
