Personnel Updates
• Destination XL Group Inc. (65) announced that Erica W. Thompson has joined its team as Chief Marketing Officer.
• Guess? Inc. (57) announced that Katie Anderson has been appointed CFO. She will replace Sandeep Reddy, who will be leaving the company.
• Pier 1 Imports Inc. (61) has named Robert Riesbeck as CEO and a director of the company. Riesbeck joined Pier 1 as CFO in July and he will continue to serve in that role.
• National Association of Chain Drug Stores (33) has announced Mary Ellen Kleiman is now Senior VP of Government Affairs, General Counsel. Don Bell was named to the new position of Senior VP of Health Policy and Legal Affairs, General Counsel. Sandra Guckian was named to the new position of VP of Health Policy and Pharmacy Care.
• National Community Pharmacists Association (10) named Brian Caswell as the 2019-2020 President.
• Rue 21 (42) has appointed Catherine Morisano as Chief Merchandising Officer. She succeeds Karen Pinney. Mary Blodgett was appointed as Senior VP Stores. She succeeds Dirk Armstrong.
Industry Insight
• Raley’s Family of Fine Stores announced it plans to close 27 of its in-store pharmacies. Prescription files for those locations have been sold to nearby Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid stores.
• Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. said it will close 157 of its retail clinics by the end of the year. The company plans to keep about 220 in-store clinics operated by outside health organizations.
Mergers and Acquisitions
• Higginbotham Bros. & Co. LLC announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire White’s Ace Building Center with locations in Shawnee and Seminole, OK.
Real Estate
• Amazon.com Inc. will open a 350,000-sq.-ft. site in Westborough, Mass. under its Amazon Robotics division. Amazon has invested over $40 million for robotics innovation and they expect the facility to create 200 technology jobs.
• Ashley HomeStores Ltd. has opened its 1,000th store location. The 22,000 sq. ft. showroom is in Millsboro, DE.
• CVS Health announced plans to close 22 underperforming stores as part of its restructuring efforts.
• Dress Barn announced its remaining 544 stores will close by Dec 26.
• Eyemart Express LLC announced plans to open 25 new locations by the end of this year. This includes expanding into four new states: Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.
• Forever 21 Inc. has announced plans to close 200 stores following its bankruptcy filing last month.
• PETCO Animal Supplies Inc. and Petco México announced the opening of the first Petco store in Tijuana. This addition will Petco’s 85th store in Mexico and they plan to expand to 90 locations by the end of 2019.
• Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. has revealed plans to open more than 30 new “small store” pharmacies in urban markets.
Technology News
• In an expanded partnership with Marxent, a 3D product visualization company, La-Z-Boy Inc. is adding virtual reality to its stores so sales associates can link three-dimensional room designs on an iPad to a VR headset, allowing customers to virtually walk around and experience their space.
• Tapestry is partnering with managed services provider CenturyLink to transform its enterprise. The company is migrating to the SAP S/4HANA ERP platform in an effort to gain greater IT agility.
