About BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., commonly referred to simply as BJ's, is a membership-only warehouse club chain operating on the United States East Coast, as well as in the state of Ohio. Before being bought by private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners in 2011, the company was ranked #232 on Fortune magazine's 2010 listing of America's 500 largest public corporations.
The company was started by discount department store chain Zayre in 1984, on the Medford/Malden border in Massachusetts. The company's name was derived from the shared initials of Barbara Jane and Beverly Jean Weich, the wife and daughter of Mervyn Weich, the president of the new company. Weich announced his resignation as president in June 1987, and left on August 1. He was replaced by John Levy.
When Zayre Corporation sold the Zayre nameplate to rival discount chain Ames in October 1988, TJX Companies was formed. In 1989, TJX spun off their warehouse division, consisting of BJ's and now-defunct HomeClub (later known as HomeBase, then House2Home), to form Waban, Inc. In August 1997, Waban spun off BJ's to become an independent company, BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, while Waban renamed itself to HomeBase, Inc.
In 2011, BJ's was acquired by two private equity firms, Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners.