Personnel Updates:
Amazon.com announced the retirement of Senior VP eCommerce Platform Brian Valentine who presided over Amazon’s e-commerce tech infrastructure that now handles millions of orders from third-party merchants.
Bed Bath & Beyond has promoted Eugene A. Castagna, previously CFO and Treasurer, to the role of COO. Susan E. Lattmann, formerly VP of Finance, will now be CFO and Treasurer.
Sam’s Club has named David Badeen VP Health Care. Badeen will be responsible for pharmacy, OTC, optical and hearing centers, as well as third party contracting and pricing. The company also announced that George Agnacian, VP of Consumables, will be responsible for HBA, tabletops/bags, pets, laundry and home care, baby care, restaurant supplies, paper and commercial cleaning.
Target announced that Exec VP and CIO Beth Jacob has resigned her position. The company is intent on elevating its technology capabilities following last December’s data breach. The company plans to elevate the role of chief information security officer and also seek an external candidate for that position.
Teavana announced that Annie Young-Scrivner has been named Exec VP, President. Teavana founder and CEO Andy Mack, having helped with the integration of Teavana with Starbucks, has decided to retire from the company.
Toys “R” Us Mobile Brand Marketing Manager, Adam Meshekow has left the company to work for Single Touch Systems, a technology-based mobile media solutions provider, as head of national retail sales.
Tuesday Morning has appointed Douglas B. Sullivan as Senior VP for Real Estate and J. Michael Jones as Senior VP and Chief Information Officer.
Financial Focus:
Dollar Tree reported that annual sales rose 6% to $7.84 billion from $7.39 billion from the previous year.
HSN, Inc. reported results for the full year ended December 31, 2013. Net sales for the company increased by four percent to $3.4 billion.
Kirkland’s, Inc. reported financial results for the 52-week year ended February 1, 2014. Net sales increased 2.7% to $460.6 million compared with $448.4 million for the 53 weeks ended February 2, 2013.
Office Depot reported its first annual financials since completing its merger with OfficeMax Nov. 5, 2013. The company’s fourth quarter results for the period ended Dec. 28, 2013 include OfficeMax’s operations, which generated $939 million of sales. Annual sales for the merged entity were $ 11.2 billion.
PetSmart Inc. reported that during the fiscal year just ended, net sales rose 3% to $6.91 billion from $6.71 billion during the previous year.
RadioShack Corporation announced that the company’s annual net sales and operating revenues decreased to $3.43 billion as of December 31, 2013. The company indicates this as a decline of 8.8% from its currently stated $3.83 billion from the previous year. However, Chain Store Guide’s historical database indicates that last year’s stated annual net sales and operating revenues were then listed by RadioShack as $4.3 billion. Apparently previously discontinued operations were taken out of the annual financials equation.
Staples announced annual sales for 2013. Annual sales fell -5.2% to $23.1 billion from $$24.4 billion from the previous year.
Target announced that annual sales as of February 1, 2014 were $72.6 billion up from $71.96 billion from the previous year, an increase of 0.9%.
Williams Sonoma, Inc. announced operating results for the fiscal year ended February 2, 2014. Net revenues increased to $4.388billion versus $4.04billion from the previous year.
Industry Insight:
American TV & Appliance is in the midst of a companywide liquidation sale after announcing the permanent shutdown of all 11 stores.
Calumet Photographic Inc., abruptly closed its U.S. retail outlets this week and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. Calumet had been in business in the U.S. since 1939. On its Facebook page early Thursday, Calumet told customers it would continue to operate its stores in Europe, but closed all of its U.S. outlets. Later, Calumet backtracked a bit, stating on its Facebook page, “Stay tuned, as we are exploring opportunities to reopen select locations to keep serving our customers. We will post any updates here if there are any.”
Kirkland’s, Inc. announced that the for the 52-week period ending January 31, 2015, the company expects to achieve approximately 10% square footage growth with 35 to 40 new store openings and 10 to 15 store closings. New store openings will be weighted more toward the second half of the year, and store closings will be weighted more toward the first half of the year.
PetSmart plans to open 70 net new stores during the current fiscal year which is 10 more than last year.
RadioShack announced plans to close up to 1,100 underperforming stores in the U.S.
Staples has announced plans to close 225 stores during the current fiscal year.
Target will open a 20,000-sq.-ft. store called TargetExpress, which is to become the company’s newest format when it opens this July in downtown Minneapolis.
