- #PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER WILLIAMS SONOMA PROFESSIONAL#
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Williams continued making trips to Europe, discovering new products to bring back to his store.īy the late 1960s, the nature of houseware sales in the United States had changed. Throughout the next decade, Williams's store prospered, attracting customers from around the country. Encouraged by friends such as Julia Child and James Beard-who would be instrumental in sparking an interest in fine cooking in the United States-Williams moved his store to San Francisco, renaming it Williams-Sonoma in honor of its original location.
#PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER WILLIAMS SONOMA PROFESSIONAL#
The store caught on quickly, becoming popular with many professional and serious cooks. Williams proceeded to dispose of the store's traditional hardware supplies and to stock it instead with the professional quality cooking equipment he had discovered overseas. In 1956, tired of his carpentry career, Williams bought and began to renovate a building in Sonoma that included a failed hardware store.
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While in Paris, he discovered a range of cookware and accessories unknown to the rather bland American kitchen of the period. A passionate cook, Williams made a trip to Paris in the early 1950s aboard the famed Ile de France cruise ship. Starting in 1956 with a Passion for CookingĪfter serving as an Air Force aircraft mechanic in North Africa and India during World War II, Charles Williams moved to Sonoma, California, where he worked as a self-taught carpenter. (Chuck) Williams, chairman until 1986, continues to guide the company's merchandise selection as vice-chairman. The company also operates three e-commerce web sites and gift registries. Williams-Sonoma's home furnishings offerings are rounded out by mail-order catalogs Chambers, which offers high-end bed linens and bath products, and Pottery Barn Bed + Bath, offering moderately priced items. The company also operates eight Pottery Barn Kids stores and 26 Hold Everything outlets, which offer a unique line of storage and organization products for the home.
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Pottery Barn, the next-largest division, with 136 stores in its retail chain, sells a near-complete line of carpets, lighting, window treatments, furniture, and other home furnishings through its catalogs and retail stores. The more than 200 Williams-Sonoma retail stores, the largest of the company's retail store chains, feature an expanded 3,000-item line of kitchenware, including cookware, cookbooks, cutlery, dinnerware, and custom-built French stoves. The flagship Williams-Sonoma catalog features a range of more than 300 professional, often exotic, products for the kitchen.
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Published since 1992, the cookbooks in the series feature a single subject, simple recipes, and lavish photographs, and are a best-selling series in the United States.Įach of Williams-Sonoma's divisions is focused on a specialty market.
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In collaboration with Time-Life Books, Williams-Sonoma also publishes the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Series. Catalog sales, through the Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Bed + Bath, Chambers, and Hold Everything catalogs, which ship more than 233 million catalogs each year, accounted for approximately 42.8 percent of sales. Retail store sales, through more than 380 stores in the company's four chains-Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and Hold Everything-accounted for 57.2 percent of annual sales in fiscal 2001. In slightly more than 40 years, Williams-Sonoma has grown to a $1.8 billion company, making it a leading U.S. Williams-Sonoma, Inc., has become virtually synonymous with home furnishings through its mail-order catalogs and retail stores. 2000: Pottery Barn begins selling merchandise online first Pottery Barn Kids store is established Williams-Sonoma TASTE magazine begins circulation.
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1999: Williams-Sonoma's e-commerce site is launched. 1994: The Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn stores undergo a series of changes, including a new store format. 1992: The company joins with Time-Life Books to create a series of Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library cookbooks. 1989: Chambers, a new catalog, is mailed to customers. 1986: The Pottery Barn chain of stores is purchased from The Gap. 1985: The firm establishes a second retail chain, Hold Everything. 1982: The Gardener's Eden catalog is acquired. 1973: A second store is opened in Beverly Hills, California the company launches its first mail-order catalog. Key Dates: 1956: Charles Williams opens a store in Sonoma, California.