Finance & Capital Management

Dallas - Between now and June 30, 7-Eleven Inc. will waive the franchise fee on a select number of its U.S. stores available for franchise, a savings of up to $80,000. The more than 200 available stores are located in cities across the country.

During the last four years 7-Eleven has grown its store base by more than 1,300 units. Now that a 7-Eleven customer base has been established at these locations, the company is looking to transition these stores to franchise operations.

New York – A majority of business websites are not ready for prime time, at least when it comes to global commerce.

According to a new survey from multilingual search agency Oban Digital, while 67% of business executive respondents say that internationalization is a key part of their growth strategy, only 20% of businesses have all of their current online communications adapted for local culture or language, a key driver of sales success.

By Frank Layo, Kurt Salmon

First the bad news: The chronic congestion tying the West Coast ports in knots is on track to cost U.S. retailers some $7 billion this year, and losses could total nearly $37 billion by the end of 2016.

And the good news? At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be much to speak of.

Chicago -- Retail CFOs predict a 3.9% increase in total sales and a 3.7% increase in same-store sales in 2015, according to a new BDO USA survey.

While the forecast is about one percentage point lower than 2014’s bullish projections, 66% of retailers expect comparable store sales to increase, and with 71% of retailers including online sales in their comparable store sales reports, a considerable amount of this 2015 growth may come from further e-commerce sales, which grew 16% in 2014, according to eMarketer.

London – Leading U.K. supermarket chain Tesco plc is reportedly considering laying off as many as 10,000 employees in response to poor profit performance. According to the Sunday Telegraph, Tesco may lay off up to 6,000 employees from its head office and 43 stores the retailer already announced it will close, and eliminate the rest by streamlining operations.

Jobs eliminated by streamlining would include executive positions. In January, Tesco said it would shutter 43 stores with as many as 2,000 resulting layoffs.
 

Acosta Sales & Marketing has appointed Randall J. Weisenburger to its board of directors.

Weisenburger is the managing member of Mile 26 Capital LLC. Previously, he served as the EVP and CFO of Omnicom Group Inc. for 16 years. Omnicom is a strategic holding company that manages a global portfolio of leading advertising, marketing, media services, public relations and specialty communications agencies serving over 5,000 clients in more than 100 counties.

Leading branded footwear company Wolverine is eyeing 2015 as a year to focus on omnichannel and expansion.

The parent company of Stride-Rite, Merrell and other brands says it is poised to realign its resources to address a fundamental shift in consumer shopping behavior and allow for greater focus on important omnichannel initiatives.

The Walmart Foundation is funding a three-year initiative to identify new ways in which the non-profit, public and private sectors can better work together to serve veterans. 

The $1 million initiative is called Welcome Home North Carolina, and it will operate under the guidance of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, a New York-based organization that solves issues facing former service personnel and their families. Among the institute’s responsibilities will be distributing the $1 million.

Minneapolis – Although 550 Target Canada headquarters employees are being laid off as Target Corp. prepares to shut down its Canadian venture, the number one person will remain employed. According to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Target Canada president Mark Schindele will return to the company’s U.S. operation and assume a new position of senior VP of retail properties.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in Louisiana on March 7. The stores are located in Juban Crossing in Denham Springs, and Magnolia Marketplace in central New Orleans.

With these new locations, Ross will operate 15 stores in Louisiana. Together, Ross Dress for Less and DD’s Discounts currently operate more than 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.