Finance & Capital Management

Little Rock, Ark. -- New England Development opened Outlets of Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Oct. 16. The center welcomed thousands of area residents and visitors to shop at Arkansas’ only outlet center.

The newest destination for shopping in the region is home to first-to-market fashion retailers: Under Armour, Asics, Bass Factory Store, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Cole Haan, Levi's Outlet Store, Lindt Chocolate Shop, Restoration Hardware and Skechers.

Dunkin’ Donuts announced new locations as it works towards its goal of opening 410 to 440 net new restaurants in 2015.

The chain announced multi-unit store development agreements totaling 24 new restaurants over the next several years in Minnesota with two franchise groups, Kod Kod Enterprises, LLC, and existing franchise group, VANTive Group.

Sportsman's Warehouse is growing its store presence out West.

The retailer will open a store in Slidell, Louisiana, its first in the state, and another in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The Louisiana store will be located in the Rouse Shopping Center, and is expected to open in early 2016.

The store in Las Cruces will be located on Telshore Boulevard and is expected to open in the summer of 2016.

Target Corp. is making a number of aggressive moves to become more self-reliant when it comes to IT development.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest move is the adoption of the DevOps software development strategy. DevOps emphasizes increased cooperation among software engineers and product deployment employees, and also focuses on agile development and testing methods.

Just a few weeks after installing a new CEO, the Fresh Market is planning to conduct a strategic review that may include a sale of the specialty grocery chain.

The company says it has retained J.P. Morgan Securities as its financial advisor to assist in this process, which may result in the company continuing to pursue value-enhancing initiatives as a standalone company, capital structure optimization, or a sale of the company or other business combination.

When you know what’s coming your way, it’s much easier to make successful plans.

For this reason, furniture retailer Havertys will deploy the GT Nexus collaborative supply chain management platform to improve supplier and inventory visibility. This, in turn, will allow Havertys to automate procurement processes, including purchase order management, three-way matching and invoice settlement.

Andrew Hunt, the co-founder of the hot eyewear retailer Warby Parker, has raised $138.3 million for a new venture capital firm, reports Boston Business Journal. The Boston-based firm is called Elephant Partners and is reportedly focused on consumer Internet, mobile and software. (Boston Business Journal)

Ikea and Best Buy are among the top retailers supporting a U.S.-sponsored pledge to act on combating climate change.

President Barack Obama met with a group of business leaders Monday at the White House to announce the signatories of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.

"The perception is that this is an environmental issue, it's for tree-huggers, and that hard-headed business people either don't care about it or see it as a conflict with their bottom lines," Obama said.