TJX buys Sierra Trading Post for $200 million

by Harry Sheff

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—TJX Companies has acquired the privately held Cheyenne, Wyo.-based an off-price Internet retailer Sierra Trading Post for $200 million.

Sierra Trading Post was founded in 1999 as an e-commerce business selling off-price apparel and home goods. It currently employs 700 people. Included in the sale are Sierra’s Cheyenne headquarters, photography studio and fulfillment center, along with call centers in Cheyenne and Cody, Wyo., and four outlet stores in Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.

“We are very pleased with the addition of Sierra Trading Post to the TJX family,” commented TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz. “We continue to plan on launching e-commerce sites for TJX brands and this acquisition adds immediate scale, capabilities and infrastructure in e-commerce, which we can leverage in that regard. We believe we will be able to build upon this platform as we continue to develop our e-commerce strategy. Further, we are confident that TJX can help grow the Sierra business profitably through our buying scale, marketing and our other capabilities.

“As an off-price online retailer, Sierra Trading Post shares many characteristics with TJX. As we do, Sierra offers branded apparel, footwear and home furnishings at great values, has a very loyal customer base, strong vendor relationships, and operates with a low cost structure. We also see Sierra’s management team, with their deep Internet retailing experience, as a complement to the strong e-commerce team we have built within TJX.”