Consumer Affairs & Relations

PepsiCo announced that James Schiro has resigned from the company's board of directors for health reasons, effective immediately.

Schiro is the former CEO of both Zurich Financial Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was elected to PepsiCo's board of directors in 2003 and served as the company's presiding director from May 2010 to May 2013. Most recently, Schiro served on PepsiCo's nominating and corporate governance committee and its compensation committee.

Framingham, Mass. – Staples Inc. is reportedly in negotiations with the state of New York to resolve a dispute about the terms of an agreement to sell numerous items to New York state agencies and qualifying non-profits for a penny each. According to the Wall Street Journal, Staples agreed to honor the one-cent prices on 219 items for three years in order to win a state office and school supplies contract.

Philadelphia -- Destination Maternity Corp. has stopped its pursuit of the United Kingdom’s Britain's Mothercare Plc chain after having two bid proposals rejected.

London -- Fifty-four percent of online shoppers feel that they are more conscious of their security online compared to 12 months ago, following a string of high-profile security breaches at various international retailers and brands. Of the 2,000 online consumers surveyed as part of EDigitalResearch's and IMRG's EcustomerServiceIndex, half (50%) felt that retailers should be doing more to keep them safe online, especially in the wake of yet more data and security breaches in 2014.

Clearwater, Fla. – MarineMax reported net income of $11.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, down 16% from $13.63 million a year earlier. A substantial increase in selling, general and administrative expenses drove the net income decrease.

Marinemax fared better in revenue, which grew approximately 22% to $214.4 million for the quarter compared with $175.8 million for the comparable quarter the prior year. Same-store sales increased approximately 22%.

By Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director at Planet Retail

Walmart named Greg Foran president and CEO of its U.S. stores division to replace Bill Simon, who is leaving the company after an eight-year run.
 

New York -- American Apparel Inc. announced  four new directors to its board, including the company’s first-ever female board member, Colleen Brown, a former CEO of Fisher Communications, and former Walgreens executive Joseph Magnacca, who took the reins as CEO of RadioShack last year.  

The other new directors are  David Glazek, a partner with hedge fund Standard General, which holds a nearly 44% stake in American Apparel, and Thomas J. Sullivan, a director of Media General.