Finance & Capital Management

Salt Lake City -- PizzaRev franchisee group Away We Dough, Inc. is opening Utah’s first PizzaRev – a build-your-own artisanal pizza concept with roots in Southern California.

The new West Valley restaurant is the first of five franchise locations planned to open in Utah in the next six months.

Away We Dough is part of William Tell, Inc. based in Salt Lake City, which owns and operates 18 Applebee’s and eight Famous Dave’s in Utah and Washington.

Brampton, Ontario -- Loblaw Cos. on Thursday announced a series of management changes, including the appointment of Galen Weston, executive chairman, as president, effective immediately. He succeeds Vicente Trius, president since August 2011, who is leaving the company, effective immediately,  for family reasons to return to Brazil.

Washington, D.C. -- The House has passed legislation broadening a federal tax law that makes it cheaper for retailers to remodel their stores, the National Retail Federation said.

Lawmakers voted 258-160 today to make “bonus depreciation” permanent, and granted NRF’s request that it be expanded to include stores that are owned rather than just those that are leased. The measure now heads to the Senate.

New York -- Sycamore Partners is in early discussion with Fred’s about a potential takeover, Reuters reported.

In January, Fred's disclosed it had hired Bank of America Corp. and Peter J. Solomon Co to explore strategic alternatives after disappointing holiday sales.

According to the report, at least one other party in also in talks with Fred's.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. is enacting a restructuring plan to simplify its organization and align the recently acquired Nokia mobile devices and services business with the company’s overall strategy. These steps will result in the elimination of up to 18,000 positions in the next year.

Los Angeles – New York-based investment firm Standard General, which owns a roughly 44% stake in troubled apparel retailer American Apparel Inc, is reportedly preparing recovery plans that both include and do not include controversial former CEO and founder Dov Charney. According to Reuters, Standard General is leaving the decision of whether to allow Charney to return to the company up to the American Apparel board, following a third-party investigation by FTI Consulting.

Cleveland – Higher pretax income and gross profit helped push net income at The Sherwin-Williams Company up 13% in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 to $291 million, from $257 million in the year-ago period.

Net sales rose 12% to $3.04 billion from $2.7 billion, primarily due to higher paint sales volume in the paint stores group and acquisitions.

Tewksbury, Mass. – A group of Market Basket employees known as “Save Market Basket” have threatened to walk off the job as of 4:30 p.m. ET on July 17 if former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas is not reinstated. Demoulas had been waging a public battle with his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, a stakeholder and director of the company, about finances when he was fired by Market Basket operator Demoulas Super Markets Inc. in June.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Kansas City area on July 19. The stores include The Shoppes at Liberty Triangle in Liberty, Missouri, and Quivira 95 Shopping Center in Overland Park, Kansas.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.