The history of Liverpool, from a fabrics stall to owning Nordstrom
El Puerto de Liverpool began in 1847 as a small fabrics shop founded by a French immigrant in Mexico City. Nearly two centuries later, it controls store chains, malls, consumer credit and even a slice of Nordstrom in the United States.
Few shoppers wandering Mexico's Liverpool stores know the name comes from an English port and that the company was born before most of the country's banks. El Puerto de Liverpool holds one of the longest corporate histories in Mexico: 1847, a French immigrant and a fabrics stall that over time became an empire of retail and credit.
A Frenchman, a fabrics stall and an English port
In 1847, Jean-Baptiste Ebrard, a French immigrant from the Barcelonnette region, opened a modest dry-goods stall in downtown Mexico City: a counter of fine fabrics, ribbons, lace and European novelties for the urban elite. The business was small, but the idea behind it was ambitious.
The name has a very concrete origin. The merchandise Ebrard sold arrived from Europe through the English port of Liverpool, the main transatlantic shipping point toward Mexico. So the store ended up named El Puerto de Liverpool, after the route that supplied it.
Credit as the business's DNA
Early on, Ebrard is credited with an innovation that would mark the company forever: selling on credit, a way to buy now and pay later. What was then a convenience for customers is today one of the model's pillars: the Liverpool credit card accounts for roughly 45% to 47% of the company's sales transactions.
With millions of active cardholder accounts, Liverpool is not just a department store: it is one of Mexico's largest issuers of consumer credit. A good part of its profitability comes from financing the purchases of its own customers.
From a store to a retail empire
Across nearly two centuries, that fabrics stall transformed into a chain of department stores and then a group listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker LIVEPOL. The company kept adding brands and formats.
- Liverpool, the flagship department-store brand.
- Suburbia, the affordable-fashion chain it bought from Walmart de México in 2017 for about 15.7 billion pesos.
- Fábricas de Francia, a historic format, mostly converted to the Suburbia model.
- Galerías, a network of about 29 shopping centers the company itself develops and operates.
On top of this comes a 50% stake in Grupo Unicomer, a Salvadoran retailer present in some two dozen countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. For 2023, El Puerto de Liverpool reported total revenues near 196 billion pesos, with more than 78,000 employees.
The leap to the United States: Nordstrom
The most surprising move came in its third century of life. After acquiring a stake of around 9.6% in the US chain Nordstrom in 2022 for about 300 million dollars, in December 2024 Liverpool and the Nordstrom family signed an agreement to take the company private.
The deal, valued at around 6.25 billion dollars, left the Nordstrom family with about 50.1% and El Puerto de Liverpool with around 49.9%. The transaction was approved by shareholders and closed in 2025.
Nordstrom is one of the worldwide leaders in department store retailing, and we're thrilled to be investing in a company that has meaningfully shaped the industry for nearly 125 years. — Graciano F. Guichard G., executive chairman of Liverpool
A 175-year-old family business
Beyond its size, what is remarkable about Liverpool is its continuity. The company has stayed under the control of the founder's descendants for more than 175 years, today tied to the David (Michel) and Bremond families, with a share structure that keeps command within the family bloc. It is also a curious fact that the founder is related to Mexican politician Marcelo Ebrard.
What Liverpool's story leaves behind
Liverpool shows that a business can survive wars, crises and technological revolutions if it understands two things: customers want to buy what they desire even when they cannot pay all at once, and well-managed credit turns a store into a financial machine. From a fabrics stall to a Nordstrom shareholder, the formula has barely changed.
For any retailer, the lesson is timeless: making the purchase easier —through financing, trust and experience— is often as important as the product being sold.
Sources
- PRNewswire / Nordstrom — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nordstrom-to-be-acquired-by-nordstrom-family-and-liverpool-302338345.html
- Retail Dive — https://www.retaildive.com/news/nordstroms-puerto-liverpool-company-private-625b/736220/
- Expansión — https://expansion.mx/empresas/2017/04/04/trato-cerrado-liverpool-y-walmart-de-mexico-concretan-la-compra-de-suburbia
- El Puerto de Liverpool (2023 Annual Report) — https://www.elpuertodeliverpool.mx/docs/informes-anuales/Liverpool-annual-report-2023.pdf
- Mexico Business News — https://mexicobusiness.news/ecommerce/news/nordstrom-shareholders-approve-merger-mexicos-liverpool