Finance & Capital Management

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly experienced difficulties in areas including product mix and corporate creativity under ousted CEO Gregg Steinhafel. According to the Wall Street Journal, these difficulties preceded any problems relating to Target’s fall 2013 data breach or expansion into Canada and helped lead to Steinhafel’s essentially forced resignation.

▲ Investing in energy conservation makes business sense: According to ASHRAE, energy is the second highest retailer operating expense. A new white paper by the Retail Leaders Industry Association (RILA) and Schneider Electric notes that recent weather extremes have increased energy costs for retailers, and the trend is expected to continue. Factor in potential electricity price increases in the near future, and increases in energy costs could be significant.

▲ Understand the assets covered by your leases: Taken together, leases are more than just one of a chain’s largest costs — they are the largest fixed expense, and they are fixed for the long term. As a rule, individual leases average seven to 10 years.

“Understanding that is critical,” said Michael P. Glimcher, chairman and CEO, Glimcher Realty Trust, Columbus, Ohio.

▲ Customer experience: Poorly maintained stores cost sales and dilute the brand and customer experience. Not giving facilities the funding required to keep stores clean and in good condition will impact the bottom line in that customers will shop elsewhere. Today, more than ever, shoppers have high expectations regarding the look and feel of a store, and they also have many more options from which to choose.

▲ Cloud computing, the remote hosting of applications on virtual platforms for on-demand, Web-based delivery, is on the fast track. Analysts estimate that during the next six years, 90% of new spending on Internet and communications technologies will be on cloud-based technologies.

Cloud computing (which at its simplest means storing and accessing data and programs on the Internet — the cloud — instead of a personal computer) is profoundly impacting how IT professionals implement, deploy and manage technology solutions.

▲ Data breaches are on the rise: Mounting an attack on retail systems has become increasingly attractive to attackers because malware can be delivered at very low cost, according to Mark Bower, VP product management and solutions, Voltage Security, a Cupertino, California, provider of data-centric encryption and tokenization.

“So it becomes very attractive to attackers to try and steal credit card and personal data they can monetize very quickly,” he added.

As to the role of a financial chief, “the CFO has the responsibility to look at overall r

▲Construction and construction costs are not an exact science: Information derived from data may be predicable; people are not.

▲ The process takes time: Construction encompasses more that just the time it takes to physically build a store. It also involves the lease-negotiating phase, drawing phases, permit phase and bidding phase.

▲ Smaller spaces don’t always translate into big cost reductions: It’s often assumed that as store square footage gets smaller, the overall costs go down.

More strategic. That’s how Greg Esgar, CFO of Massage Envy Spa, the nation’s largest therapeutic massage chain, sums up the evolving role of today’s CFO. Esgar joined the Scottsdale, Arizona-based business as financial chief in 2004, two years after it was founded. As part of the executive team, he helped spur the company’s growth from 17 locations to its present total of nearly 1,000 sites in 49 states. With its membership-based, monthly-fee business model, Massage Envy Spa eschews the luxury amenities and high prices of traditional day spas.

As the key cog in the wheel of a retail chain’s financial structure, today’s retail CFOs find themselves caught in the crosshairs of senior management and stakeholders demanding maximum profit and measurable growth amid increased consolidation and tightened revenues.

But that’s nothing new. Financial chiefs have always had to balance profit and loss with expansion strategies.

Tewksbury, Mass. – Demoulas Supermarkets Inc. has fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. The retailer also fired director of operations Bill Marsden and VP of grocery Joe Rockwell.

Demoulas had been waging a public battle with his cousin Arthur S. Demoulas, a stakeholder and director of the company, about finances. Arthur T. Demoulas has claimed that his cousin seeks to raise prices and lower wages. The cousins have also publicly disagreed about agreements with suppliers and vendors.