Saks, Inc. was an American holding company founded in 1998 through the merger of Proffitts, Inc. and Saks Fifth Avenue. Before acquisition by the Canadian-founded Hudson's Bay Company in 2013, it held ownership of numerous regional department store chains including Carson's, McRae's, Parisian, and Proffitt's as well as the New York City-based Saks Fifth Avenue. It acquired several mid-range and specialty department store chains in the 1990s, however, refocused on upscale retailing and divested of them in the mid-2000s.
HBC maintains the Saks Fifth Avenue nameplate through the full-line department stores, Saks Off 5th off-price stores, and SaksWorks coworking space provider.
Operations during 20th century
Saks, Inc. originally began as five Proffitt's stores in the Knoxville, Tennessee, metropolitan area. After going public under the symbol PRFT on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1987, Proffitt's Inc. grew by acquiring several department stores. In 1989 the company purchased 18 Hess's locations in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia. From 1993 to 1998, the company added McRae's, Younkers, Parisian, Herberger's, Carson Pirie Scott, the Wisconsin-based