Gymboree Group, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of
The Children's Place
The Children's Place Inc. is a specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories headquartered in New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names.
As of October 31, 2015, it ...
.
History
Gymboree was founded by Joan Barnes in 1976.
Retail stores
In 1986, the company opened a chain of clothing stores named Gymboree. Gymboree stores offered coordinating children's clothing. The sizes ranged from newborn to size ten. As of January 2019, it operated 380 Gymboree stores, 154 Gymboree
outlets, 147
Janie & Jack stores, 253 Crazy 8 stores, and 11 Crazy 8 outlets in the U.S. and Canada.
![Gymboree - Scarborough TC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Gymboree_-_Scarborough_TC.jpg)
Crazy 8 was started in August 2007. It featured lower-priced clothing and was Gymboree's direct competitor for
The Children's Place
The Children's Place Inc. is a specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories headquartered in New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names.
As of October 31, 2015, it ...
and
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...
.
In 2010,
Bain Capital
Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...
acquired the company for US$1.8 billion.
In June 2017, Gymboree announced it was filing for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
protection. As part of the debt management process, it said it would close 375 of its 1,300 stores. In September 2017, the company emerged from bankruptcy. In 2017, the company closed 350 of its 1,281 stores.
In November 2018, it was reported that Gymboree would file for bankruptcy for the second time in 14 months, and as a result, Gymboree announced plans to discontinue the Crazy 8 brand and close all Crazy 8 stores after the holiday season.
On January 17, 2019, Gymboree filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, closing all Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, and Crazy 8 stores as a result. The company sold its Janie & Jack stores to
Gap, Inc.
The Gap, Inc., commonly known as Gap Inc. or Gap (stylized as GAP), is an American worldwide clothing and accessories retailer. Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris F. Fisher and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The co ...
Play & Music Centers
![Gymboree, Putney Exchange 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Gymboree%2C_Putney_Exchange_01.jpg)
In July 2016, The Gymboree Corporation sold the Gymboree Play & Music business to Zeavion Holding, a
private company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
with a focus on the education and entertainment sectors. Gymboree Play & Music is now completely separate from the Gymboree Corporation and is operating parent-child play classes for ages 0–5. Play & Music operates in over 40 countries and has more than 733 centers internationally. Gymboree Play and Music centers are not affected by the Gymboree stores closing.
Relaunch
On June 24, 2019, the Gymboree assets were sold to
The Children's Place
The Children's Place Inc. is a specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories headquartered in New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names.
As of October 31, 2015, it ...
, who announced that Gymboree would relaunch as an online retailer and would also feature a
store-within-a-store
A store-within-a-store, also referred to as shop-in-shop, is an agreement in which a retailer rents a part of the retail space to be used by a different company to run another, independent shop.
Origins
In the early days of cellular telephone gr ...
concept at The Children's Place stores. It was announced on January 30, 2020, that The Children's Place would relaunch Gymboree in February that year, featuring an "early access" program that would allow early access to the first 10,000 customers who register a spot.
Lawsuits
In November 2005, Gymboree settled a lawsuit relating to overtime compensation in
Riverside
Riverside may refer to:
Places Australia
* Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania
Canada
* Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon
* Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta
* Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
, California for $2.3 million. The lawsuit alleged that Gymboree did not pay mandatory overtime or provide required meal breaks.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gymboree Corporation
Franchises
American companies established in 1976
Clothing companies established in 1976
Retail companies established in 1976
American companies disestablished in 2019
Clothing companies disestablished in 2019
Retail companies disestablished in 2019
American companies established in 2020
Retail companies established in 2020
2010 mergers and acquisitions
Early childhood education
Early childhood education in the United States
Clothing retailers of the United States
Bain Capital companies
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019
Medical and health organizations based in California
1976 establishments in California
2019 disestablishments in California
Re-established companies