Brookstone
Chain of stores offering gadgets and specialty items.
Headquarters:
1 Innovation Way
Merrimack, NH 03054
Employees: 3,000
CEO: Stephen Bebis
Website: http://www.brookstone.com
Career Site
Brookstone is a multichannel lifestyle specialty retailer and product development company. Brookstone operates approximately 300 stores nationwide and in Puerto Rico. Typically located in high-traffic regional shopping malls and airports, the stores feature unique and innovative consumer products.
Brookstone sells a variety of cool gadgets and items including air purifying cleaners, zero-gravity chairs, back massagers and accessories for iPhones and iPads. Items at Brookstone make great gifts for friends and family.
The company is privately held and principally owned by three groups, Osim International, J.W. Childs, and Temasek Holdings. Osim and Temasek are Singapore-based companies.
In 2011, Brookstone reported net sales of $496.8 million, a 6.3% increase, and net loss of $7.2 million. The company has lost money the past several years and has been restructuring debt.
History
Pierre de Beaumont and his wife Marry began Brookstone as a catalog business in 1965 with a small classified ad selling "hard-to-find tools" in Popular Mechanics Magazine. The company was named Brookstone after their farm in the Berkshires.
From the beginning, quality of product, quality of service, and quality of people have been a hallmark of Brookstone. The first catalog consisted of 24 black-and-white pages, with detailed, no-nonsense information on features, capabilities, measurements, materials and anything that would help the customer with his or her buying decision.
As Brookstone's catalog success grew, its operations expanded. In 1973, Brookstone opened its first retail store in Peterborough, NH, where an unsolicited walk-in trade quickly developed.
The company was acquired by an investor group -- Osim International, J.W. Childs, and Temasek Holdings -- in 2005 for $445 million.
Updated November 23, 2012
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