# Martha Stewart's sixty-five million dollar Kmart deal

> The discount retailer's royalty partnership funded Stewart's empire before her 1999 IPO made her America's first female self-made billionaire.
- Title: Martha Stewart's sixty-five million dollar Kmart deal
- Summary: The discount retailer's royalty partnership funded Stewart's empire before her 1999 IPO made her America's first female self-made billionaire. Martha Stewart…
- Keywords: martha stewart, kmart, licensing deal, royalties, martha stewart living omnimedia, retail partnership, Martha, Stewart's, sixty-five, million, dollar, deal
- Source: Fortune — https://fortune.com/2026/10/08/martha-stewart-kmart-royalties-65-million-year-empire
- Author: Fernanda Tronco
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: martha stewart, kmart, licensing deal, royalties, martha stewart living omnimedia, retail partnership
## Kmart paid Stewart sixty-five million yearly
Martha Stewart said on MasterClass's Other People's Business podcast that her Kmart licensing partnership once brought in as much as sixty five million dollars a year in royalties.

> I was clearing $65 million a year in royalties.
## The money funded her entire business
Stewart said the Kmart royalties funded the development of her magazine and entire business, setting up her nineteen ninety nine IPO that made her America's first female self-made billionaire.

> Kmart was my first big money, and it was a lot of money.
## Kmart hired Stewart then dropped her
Kmart first hired Martha Stewart in nineteen eighty seven as a lifestyle consultant for its home division. That arrangement fizzled in the early nineteen nineties as Stewart complained about merchandising and quality control.
## Martha Stewart Everyday launched in nineteen ninety-seven
After Floyd Hall became CEO in nineteen ninety five, Kmart came back to Stewart. In nineteen ninety seven, the company launched Martha Stewart Everyday, a line of sheets, towels, shower curtains and bed-and-bath goods sold only at Kmart.
## The line sold close to two billion yearly
Kmart paid for advertising with a first-year budget of about twenty million dollars, largely for TV commercials. In the first year, Stewart said, they sold hundreds of millions of dollars of product. At its peak, the line was selling close to two billion dollars worth of merchandise a year.

> In the first year, we sold hundreds of millions of dollars of product.
## The partnership lasted until January twenty ten
The Martha Stewart Everyday partnership outlasted Stewart's legal troubles and Kmart's two thousand two bankruptcy. As late as two thousand eight, the Kmart line accounted for forty three percent of her company's merchandising revenue. It ended in January twenty ten after Sears Holdings declined to renew.
## ImClone stock sale cost her a billion
In December two thousand one, Stewart sold her ImClone Systems shares a day before the FDA rejected the company's cancer drug. The sale avoided a loss of roughly forty five thousand dollars. A jury found her guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and lying to federal investigators. She served five months in federal prison from October two thousand four to March two thousand five.

> The lawyers took me to the cleaners and they were horrible.
## Stewart is still building at eighty-five
Stewart's Emmy-nominated series Martha Cooks arrived on Netflix on August twenty fifth. Last year she launched a skincare brand and in May unveiled an AI startup to manage your home. She said retirement is not an option and remains active in business.

> But I'm back. I mean, I'm pretty good.
## Key takeaway

Martha Stewart revealed that Kmart royalties once paid her sixty five million dollars a year, funding her magazine and business before her nineteen ninety nine public offering.