chain . for other uses see myer disambiguation . myer holdings pty ltd type public asx myr industry retail founded 1900 in bendigo victoria australia headquarters docklands melbourne vic australia number of locations 67 key people sidney myer founder paul mcclintock chairman richard umbers ceo & managing director jennifer hawkins & kris smith ambassadors products womenswear menswear miss shop youth childrenswear intimate apparel beauty fragrance and cosmetics homewares electrical goods toys footwear handbags and accessories and general merchandise revenue a 3.3 billion 2016 operating income a 113.5 million 2016 net income a 60.5 million 2016 after implementation costs number of employees 14 000 website www.myer.com.au myer s national flagship store in melbourne s bourke street mall former myer emporium lonsdale street facade 1920s 2010 myer lonsdale st including lonsdale house former head office building until 1980s & again between 2006 and 2010 . built in 1934 myer successfully applied to demolish lonsdale house in 2009 to widen caledonian lane for delivery trucks despite the buildings being in a city of melbourne heritage overlay retaining just the facades of two victorian buildings . myer stylised myer is a mid to up market australian department store chain . myer retails a broad range of products across women s men s and children s clothing footwear and accessories ; cosmetics and fragrance ; homewares ; electrical ; furniture and bedding ; toys ; books and stationery ; food and confectionery ; and travel goods . myer s primary department store rival is david jones . australian model and miss universe 2004 jennifer hawkins is the long serving face of myer . the department store also engages a number of other personalities as fashion ambassadors . myer s has long been australia s largest department store by revenue and store count . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 target grace bros and merger with gj coles 1.3 divestment by coles myer 1.4 private ownership 1.5 proposed merger with david jones limited 1.6 slipping employment conditions & resignation of ceo bernie brookes 2 stores and services 2.1 myer one rewards program 2.2 myer store card and branded credit cards 2.3 find wonderful 2.4 store locations 2.5 online shopping 2.6 departments 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit early history edit the myer retail group was started by sidney myer who migrated from russia to melbourne in 1899 with very little money and little knowledge of english to join his elder brother elcon myer 1875 1938 who had left russia two years earlier . they opened the first myer store in bendigo victoria in 1900 . after prospering the second store opened in 1908 . in 1911 myer purchased the business of wright and neil drapers in bourke street melbourne near the general post office and a new building was completed and opened in 1914 . from this base in melbourne myer built australia s largest chain of department stores and the only chain with stores in all australian states . in 1918 the doveton woollen mills at ballarat were purchased and in 1921 a new building fronting post office place was added at melbourne and in the following years myer purchased adjoining properties eventually building a store known as the myer emporium . 1 myer expanded to lonsdale street in the 1920s . 2 the myer emporium grew with the purchase of the old established businesses of robertson & moffat and stephens & sons . in 1925 myer emporium ltd was listed on the melbourne stock exchange and the new building on the lonsdale street frontage was begun . in adelaide in 1925 the company myer sa stores ltd acquired a controlling interest in marshall s department store and its shares continued to be listed on the adelaide stock exchange until myer emporium ltd made a successful takeover bid in 1966 . a separate building in queensberry street melbourne was put up in 1928 and the collins street businesses of t. webb and sons china importers and w. h. rocke and company house furnishers were bought and transferred to the bourke street building . by 1934 the public company had a paid up capital of nearly 2 500 000 . the company was then employing 5300 people with medical and nursing aid for the staff and rest homes for them at the seaside and in the dandenong ranges . on the death of sidney myer in 1934 leadership of the company fell to elcon myer and on the death of elcon in 1938 leadership went to their nephew norman myer . norman myer led the company until his death in 1956 . 3 myer grew by developing its own stores becoming one of australia s major property owners and developers in the process and acquiring other department stores including adelaide s marshall s western australia s boans in 1984 queensland s barry and roberts and in new south wales they acquired western stores farmers & co in 1961 mortimer s gosford in 1968 and grace brothers in 1983 . target grace bros and merger with gj coles edit in 1968 myer acquired geelong s lindsay s stores 4 renaming the business target following the purchase of name and logo from us target corporation and positioning it as a discount department store chain . 5 in 1983 grace bros. bought myer nsw and then in july of that year myer acquired grace bros. holdings ltd. 6 the myer store on market and pitt sts in sydney became the main grace bros. store . in 1984 myer acquired boans ltd 7 the dominant western australian department store chain and embarked on a major redevelopment of its perth city store . in 1985 the myer emporium and target its discount department store merged with gj coles & coy forming coles myer limited then australia s largest retailer . 8 myer remained a distinct entity within the new corporate structure until it was sold in 2006 . in 2000 coles myer ceo dennis eck faced with lower sales and profits from myer and grace bros. stores took the department stores down market reducing service levels increasing stock volumes on the selling floor and introducing product to appeal to younger consumers . in doing so he ended up replicating the approach of another of coles myer s chains target . the resulting effect included reduced customer visits and reduced units sold per transaction . in 2001 coles myer set about to reposition the store to appeal to customers lost in the down market experiment . 9 in 2003 one of the key changes made by the recently appointed managing director dawn robertson was to classify each myer grace bros. store using a grid system referencing the socio economic status of the area its turnover and growth potential . larger city centre stores would rank at the top of the grid and smaller regional stores would rank at the bottom of the grid . the grid would affect the merchandise allocated to each store rather than selling the same range of product in downtown melbourne as in regional queensland . 10 on 13 february 2004 grace bros. stores were rebranded as myer . 11 myer bondi as seen from westfield in april 2004 myer re opened its bondi junction new south wales store which replaced a former grace bros. store closed in april 2002 to make way for the redevelopment of westfield bondi junction . it was the first myer store to open in several years and incorporated new features such as white glossy floor tiles extensive use of glass and greater use of mannequins . under managing director dawn robertson myer began to target the sydney market more strongly to challenge the position of chief rival david jones particularly in ladies fashion . in february 2004 myer held its sydney fashion parade the day before david jones . on 9 august 2004 myer staged a fashion parade open air in martin place gaining widespread attention and again it was held the day before david jones show . 12 divestment by coles myer edit on 17 august 2005 coles announced that within 12 months it would decide to demerge divest or retain myer . thirteen expressions of interest were made for all or part of myer . 13 on 13 march 2006 coles myer announced it would sell myer to a consortium controlled by us private equity group newbridge capital part of the texas pacific group . the consortium also included the myer family who held a 5 % stake . the new owners who also secured the freehold on the flagship bourke street store indicated that they would not radically change the business at least in the short term and had no plans to redevelop the bourke street site as this would impact too heavily on profitability during the construction period . texas pacific also have interests in uk department store debenhams and high end us retailer neiman marcus . this sale was completed for a 1.4 bn on 2 june 2006 . 14 private ownership edit after being divested from coles myer later coles group then purchased by wesfarmers new owners newbridge capital and the myer family appointed chairman bill wavish and chief executive bernie brookes both formerly of woolworths . rupert myer joined the board representing the myer family . head office for myer moved from coles myer head office in hawthorn east back to lonsdale house lonsdale st store in melbourne s cbd . flyer for the history making clearance distributed to customers beginning july 2006 myer held a history making clearance to clear out excess stock deemed either unprofitable or unpopular and reduced inventories from 1.5 billion to 750 million and all store specific warehouses were closed . 15 former miss universe jennifer hawkins began appearing in campaigns for myer in 2006 and in january 2007 signed a 4 million deal to be the face of myer for four years . 16 myer withdrew from the coles group part owned flybuys rewards program on 1 february 2007 . in march 2007 myer announced first half earnings before interest and tax ebit of 123 million an increase of 84 % on the previous year . this represents a profit margin of 6.8 % compared with 3.9 % in the previous corresponding period . according to chairman bill wavish all myer stores were now profitable and all stores were more profitable than in the previous year . 17 myer acquired four harris scarfe stores including regaining a store it divested to harris scarfe in 1998 and took a minority shareholding in harris scarfe . the mymerch system developed with ibm and oracle cost 99 million and was implemented early april 2007 . among other functions mymerch increased myer s ability to carry out statistical analysis of customer habits giving it greater capacity to forecast sales trends and target promotions . 18 myer s profit turnaround was tempered in april 2007 by the loss of key staff . bob boutin apparel director mark bingemann women s wear business manager and jasmine bingemann footwear and accessories manager all resigned within a short period . 19 this followed reports of management dissatisfaction over the direction of the fashion business signified by the defection of designers such as alex perry and tigerlily to david jones . 20 in june 2007 a consortium comprising the myer family colonial first state and gic real estate singapore announced it would be purchasing myer s melbourne cbd store . the bourke street part of the store was planned to be redeveloped by 2009 with myer taking a 60 year lease 21 but the development was not completed until march 2011 . 22 the lonsdale street part of the store closed in 2009 . in september 2009 following rumours from the previous month 23 myer indicated it would float the business at an indicative share price range of 3.90 to 4.90 when it listed on 2 november giving it a market capitalisation between