Jos. A. Bank

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers was one of America's leading retailers of men's tailored clothing — suits, sport coats, dress shirts, footwear and accessories in a classic style, sold with famously aggressive promotions. Established in 1905 and long headquartered in Hampstead, Maryland, the company became the prize of a hostile takeover contest in 2013-14: having first bid for The Men's Wearhouse itself, Jos. A. Bank was acquired by Men's Wearhouse in April 2014 for $65 per share. The buyer renamed itself Tailored Brands, and Jos. A. Bank continues as one of its banners.

Company Profile

The October 2013 summary describes the independent company at the contest's start: one of the nation's leading retailers of men's classically styled tailored and casual clothing, sportswear, footwear and accessories, with a heritage of quality and workmanship and a selection built over 108 years. Its 'Buy One, Get Three Free' style promotions had made it a household name — and the margin questions around them made it a contested asset.

The February 2019 summary in the record is written from inside Tailored Brands, describing the combined group as the leading specialty retailer of men's suits and the largest men's formalwear provider in the United States and Canada. That is the correct modern frame: Jos. A. Bank's stores, rental business and name sit alongside Men's Wearhouse inside one menswear group.

The range behind the name is men's tailored clothing, sportswear, footwear and accessories. Its customers are men buying suits and classic clothing for work and formal occasions. That combination — what is sold, and to whom — is the simplest way to place Jos. A. Bank in the industry: it explains the company's costs, its competitors and the kind of news that moved its shares when it had them. A change in either half of the combination, a new product category or a new customer, is usually the first sign that the business described in the older summaries is turning into something different.

Scale should be read from the dated summaries with their dates attached. Store counts, sales descriptions and market positions quoted there were the company's own account of itself in that year, and they are the right basis for comparing Jos. A. Bank with the other companies in this section — a component supplier against a retailer, or a catalogue house against a mall chain — as long as each figure is compared with figures from roughly the same period.

For current dealings, the snapshot at the top of this page is the place to start: it gives the company's present status — Operating as a brand of Tailored Brands — acquired by The Men's Wearhouse in 2014 and no longer independent — and links to the official website, which is where current product ranges, store information and investor or corporate contacts are maintained. Anything in the dated summaries that conflicts with the snapshot should be read as the older position: summaries describe the year they are dated, and the snapshot describes the company as it stands now.

For anyone researching the fashion industry's public-company era, Jos. A. Bank is a useful case: a suitor that became the target in menswear's most famous takeover contest. The summaries in this section were compiled while the story was still unfolding, which is exactly what makes them worth keeping — they preserve what the company said about itself at the time, before the outcome was known.