| TK Maxx | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Parent: | TJX Companies |
| Location: | Watford, United Kingdom[1] |
| Industry: | Retail |
| Products: | Clothing, footwear, bedding and domestics, furniture and giftware |
| Founder: | Bernard Cammarata |
TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies. Its first store opened in 1994 in the United Kingdom. The chain uses a different name from TJ Maxx stores in the United States to avoid confusion with the British retailer T. J. Hughes. TK Maxx now also operates in Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands.[2]
TK Maxx has 596 stores in Europe and 56 in Australia as of May 2020. The stores are sometimes combined with Homesense, another TJX International subsidiary specialising in homewares.
In 1976, TJ Maxx was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States, by Bernard Cammarata. The first international store opened in Bristol, UK, in 1994.[3] The company modified the name to TK Maxx to avoid confusion with the unrelated British retail chain T. J. Hughes.[4] Opening of stores in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2001 was not as successful as the company wished. The first store in Germany opened on October 4, 2007, in Lübeck.[5]
In 2007, TK Maxx began winding down new store openings in the United Kingdom. Focus was given to revamping or relocating older inner city stores. The company opened larger "Maxx Maxx" stores to attempt to move from a budget reputation and become more like a department store.[6] In August 2008, TK Maxx opened a store on Kensington High Street, London, England, its first central London store, on a site formerly occupied by Habitat.[7]
In 2009, TK Maxx was denied permission by the Crown Estate to open a store in a unit on its land at Piccadilly Circus, London. In February that year, the company had signed a deal with the leaseholder of the unit, a 200000NaN0 vacant site formerly used by Virgin Megastores, with a rent of £1.55 million per year.[8] The Crown Estate rejected TK Maxx, saying it did not fit its upmarket development strategy for the area.[9] In response, publicist Max Clifford and Look magazine launched a campaign in support of a TK Maxx store on the site.[10] A court appeal by TK Maxx against the decision failed.[11]
In March 2009, the TK Maxx e-commerce site was launched, initially selling only handbags, but later also selling other accessories.[12]
In October 2015, the first Dutch store opened in Eindhoven followed by more stores. In April 2017, the brand was launched in Australia, when it took over the thirty five Trade Secret discount department stores. The stores opened in April in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with stores in Cairns, Townsville, Toowoomba, Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong, Albury, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast by the end of May.[13]
In November 2018, a mass brawl between hostile extended families took place at a TK Maxx outlet in Osnabrück, Germany, during Black Friday sales.[14]
In June 2023, the first store opened in Tasmania, Australia at Northgate Shopping Centre in Hobart.[15]
In 2007 and 2009, TK Maxx in the UK was the sole retailer of Red Nose Day T-shirts, sales of which generated £2 million in 2007 and £3 million in 2009 for Comic Relief.[16] [17]
TK Maxx has been a supporter of the Woodland Trust since 2004, when it held a Christmas card recycling scheme in conjunction with the Trust.[18] [19] From August 2008, TK Maxx introduced charges on plastic carrier bags and donated the proceeds to the Woodland Trust, which used the funds to plant 30,000 new trees on a 150NaN0 site near Elmstead Market, Essex.[20] This was before the 2015 phase-out of plastic bags in the UK, in which charges became mandatory and are now frequently donated to charity.
TK Maxx also runs a 'Give Up Clothes For Good' campaign, where customers are encouraged to bring in unwanted clothes for Cancer Research UK.[21]
In Ireland, TK Maxx actively supports Enable Ireland, a charity which helps provide free services to children with disabilities.[22]