Burlington Coat Factory

**Burlington Stores**, company formerly known as **Burlington Coat Factory**, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with 740 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with its corporate headquarters located in Burlington Township, New Jersey. In 2007, it was acquired by Retail Ventures in a merger transaction and in 2008, Tom Kingsbury became President and CEO. The company went public again in 2013. The company operates under various names including **Burlington Coat Factory**, **Cohoes Fashions**, **Baby Depot**, **MJM Designer Shoes** and **Burlington Shoes**. Burlington is the third largest off-price retailer after TJX Companies and Ross Stores.

## History

Monroe Milstein and his father, Abe, had been running a successful wholesale and retail outerwear business together since 1946. In 1972, Henrietta Milstein convinced her husband Monroe to purchase a former factory outlet in Burlington, New Jersey, for $675,050, using money she had saved from her job as a librarian for most of the $75,000 down payment. Initially, the Milsteins sold coats and jackets wholesale, but in order to become less dependent on the seasonal coat business, they gradually began adding additional clothing items and accessories, eventually expanding into linens, gift items, a baby department and shoes.

A second location was opened in 1975 in Copiague on Long Island, and Milstein asked his son Lazer, who was living in Israel at the time, to return home and act as the store's legal owner for the new location. Lazer agreed, on the condition that the store be closed Saturdays in observance of the Sabbath. At the time, businesses faced legal action for being open on Sunday, with an exception made for religions observing a different Sabbath. In 1983, with 31 locations, the company, whose name was Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation since it was bought by the family in 1972, went public.

In 2006, the company was purchased by Bain Capital Partners for $2.06 billion. The Milstein family held almost 30 million shares of the Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation, making approximately $1.3 billion, and Monroe Milstein was unassociated with the business following the sale, although two of his sons, Stephen and Andrew, stayed on briefly. Mark Nesci, the former executive vice president and chief operating officer, was named to serve as the acting CEO. A holding company called Burlington Coat Factory Holdings Inc., was formed to be the ultimate parent of the chain.

In July 2012, the company received a $40 million incentive from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority as part of the state's GrowNJ program in order to build a new headquarters in Florence, adjacent to its existing headquarters, keeping the company from moving its headquarters outside the state.

On June 27, 2013, Burlington filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC for an initial public offering. In October 2013, the company's stock rose more than 40% on its first day of trading. The company reported $4.35 billion in sales for the 12-month period ending August 3, 2013. As of October 2013, the company operated 503 stores in 44 states and Puerto Rico under the names Burlington Coat Factory, Cohoes Fashions, Baby Depot, MJM Designer Shoes and Burlington Shoes.

In June 2016, it was announced that Burlington Stores had joined the Fortune 500 for the first time.

## Charitable partnerships

Burlington has partnered with charitable organizations for several years. Since 2002, they have partnered with the joining the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night campaign, collecting donations at the store checkout. With an annual fundraiser that runs from July through October, the company raised more than $3 million in 2013, bringing the total raised by the company to date to more than $19 million.

In 2006, Burlington launched the Warm Coats and Warm Hearts Drive to collect coat donations for those in need. Partnering with ABC's *Good Morning America* and the national nonprofit Fashion Delivers, Burlington stores served as drop off spots for the donations, which were then distributed within the area by local charities. Since the program's inception, over 1.2 million coats have been collected and distributed.

In 2012, the company first partnered with WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease to promote women’s heart health education during National Heart Health Month As part of this partnership, the company holds a yearly Red Dress Event, where red dresses are sold in stores, with $1 from every sale donated to WomenHeart. In 2014, as part of the partnership they launched the “Heart of Style Tour”. For the tour, a bus traveled to various store locations, with heart health professionals on board providing blood pressure tests and Body Mass Index (BMI) tests and education about women's heart disease.