Coach, Inc. is a designer, producer, and marketer of a prestige line of Bags, Purses, handbags, Wallets, Shoes, briefcases, luggage, and accessories. The company made its reputation selling sturdy leather purses in unchanging, traditional, classic styles, and it remains one of the best-known leather brands in the United States and has a growing reputation overseas. In addition to its main product line, the company offers Coach brand watches, footwear, and home and office furniture through agreements with licensing partners. Nearly two-thirds of company sales are derived, from direct-to-consumer channels. These include about 190 Coach outlet stores in the United States--of these, approximately 120 are retail stores and the remainder are factory outlets--direct mail catalogs, and an online store. There are also 175 Coach locations outside the United States, in 18 countries. The company's indirect channels include the wholesaling of Coach brand products to approximately 1,400 department and specialty store locations in the United States. Formed in 1941, Coach was family owned and operated until 1985, when Sara Lee Corporation purchased the firm. Coach remained a subsidiary of Sara Lee until 2001, when the firm regained its independence via a spinoff.
Company Perspectives:
"Classic American style"--for 60 years, these words have defined the character and spirit of the Coach brand.
Today more than ever, Coach embodies "classic American style"--now across a broad and modern product offering of lifestyle accessories in a number of distinctive categories, styles and fabrications. As the brand has grown and evolved, so has the company: from manufacturing to marketing driven; and from a small family business based in a New York loft to a publicly traded company with worldwide sales of $600 million in fiscal 2001.
At Coach, the brand is at the core of the company's vision and strategy. The values of the brand--customer satisfaction, integrity, innovation and collaboration--are the reasons Coach's people come to work each morning. The strength of the Coach brand is, ultimately, what makes Coach the company it is today.
