Finance & Capital Management

Walmart has created 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 offshore tax havens in a bid to cut the corporate giant's taxes on its foreign operations, according to Bloomberg.

The company holds at least $76 billion in assets through shell companies based in the low-tax havens of Luxembourg and the Netherlands, said Bloomberg, who quoted a report by Americans for Tax Fairness, an organization backed by national, state and local labor and community groups.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that Target laid off 140 staffers and eliminated 50 open positions at its headquarters on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, the eliminated positions were in places “we identified redundancies or opportunities for greater efficiencies,” Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail. 

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Usually it’s California causing regulatory headaches for retailers and suppliers, but now tiny Vermont is getting in on the action with onerous labeling requirements and hefty fines that are expected to be a compliance nightmare.

No great surprise that Walmart sits atop the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies with its annual revenues of $485.6 billion.

Naturally, that raises familiar questions about future growth which were addressed by president and CEO Doug McMillon.

According to Fortune, Walmart is a crossroads as it transitions from the big-box era that propelled it to the world's largest company, to one in which customers are fussier about what they eat and can easily comparison shop thanks to the internet.

Fort Worth, Texas -- There was good news in Pier 1 Imports’ first quarter performance, including a 2% increase in same-store sales.

The retailer reported net income of $6.9 million for the quarter, ended May 30, down from $15.1 million in the year-ago period. Its results were in line with expectations.  

Farmingdale, N.Y. -- Ferrandino & Son, Inc. has been named one of the largest landscape companies in North America by Lawn & Landscape magazine.
 
Ferrandino & Son, Inc. ranked within the top 10 on the 2015 Lawn & Landscape Top 100 list, which was published in May.
 
“Ranking in the top 10% of the largest landscaping companies in North America is a major accomplishment for us,” said Kevin Smith, COO, Ferrandino & Son,
 

New York - Borderfree, provider of international cross-border e-commerce solutions, has expanded its platform to reach more than 220 countries and territories. This expansion of scope includes an additional 120 countries and 15 currencies.

Key emerging luxury markets Borderfree will now sell to include Nigeria and Kazakhstan. Both markets offer opportunities for e-commerce expansion due to increasing smartphone saturation and discretionary spending.

The additional countries will be available to Borderfree customers starting this June.

New York -- One of the world’s largest retailers has undertaken a search is underway for a new CEO to execute a massive transformation. But getting to the interview will require U.S. executives to take a very long flight and the successful applicant will need good listening skills to decipher the accent of co-workers.

Seattle – Starbucks Corp. is taking the bakery store brand it acquired in 2012 in house. The coffee giant said it plans to close all 23 La Boulange retail (bakery café) locations, as well as the two baking facilities serving the locations, by the end of September. The retailer said it determined that La Boulange stores are “not sustainable for the company’s long-term growth.”

A disruption in product flow because of the West Coast port dispute led to a drop in same store sales for Hancock Fabrics in the first quarter.

The company had net sales of $61.7 million for the first quarter ended May 2, compared to $63 million in the first quarter of the prior year. Same store sales declined by 1.9%.