Finance & Capital Management

Chico’s FAS Inc. has revealed plans to close more stores, cut jobs and decrease its capital spending to $100 million for fiscal 2015, a 29% decrease to its three-year average.

Jacksonville, Fla. - Stein Mart is opening 11 new stores this year as part of the company's accelerated store growth that began in 2014. The new stores include the company's March opening of the first-ever San Francisco Bay area location in Cupertino, California, and 10 additional stores opening in the fall.

This is an increase from the company's earlier estimate of 10 new stores for 2015 announced in November. In 2014, Stein Mart opened nine new stores.

Austin, Texas - The credit card industry is lagging behind its own deadline to get more secure microchip-enabled credit cards into consumers’ wallets by October 2015. According to a new survey from CredtCards.com, just three out of every 10 U.S. credit cardholders have a chip card.

The adoption rate is significantly higher among high net worth cardholders, but at 49%, it still means more than half of the richest Americans ($100,000 or more in investable assets) lack chip-based card security.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Co. on Thursday reported its 11th consecutive quarterly loss, posting a loss of $159 million for the fourth quarter, down from loss of $358 in the year-ago period, amid cost reductions.

The struggling chain saw its losses for the full year widen to $1.7 billion from $1.4 billion, marking its fourth straight year of decline. Total long-term debt rose to $3.2 billion from $2.9 billion a year earlier.

Record digital and mobile sales propelled HSN Inc. to a better-than-expected 10% increase in sales in the fourth quarter.

The company reported profit of $68.3 million, or $1.28 a share, up from $61.6 million, or $1.14 a share, a year earlier.

Off-price department store operator Steinmart is looking to capitalize on favorable business trends this year with an aggressive expansion plan that will see the company add 11 new stores.

The Jacksonville, Fl.,-based operator of 270 stores had indicated last fall it would open 10 new stores this year, but after reporting better than expected sales results the growth target was increased by one location. Steinmart opened nine new stores last year as part of a renewed commitment to physical expansion.

Dublin, Calif. -- dd’s Discounts, a division of Ross Stores, Inc., will open a new store in north Jacksonville, Florida.  The opening is slated for Feb. 28.

The new store is located in Highland Square at Dunn Avenue and Monaco Drive off Interstate 95. Florida is the retailer’s third largest state with a total of 25 stores. Including this new location, dd’s Discounts will operate over 150 locations in 15 states.
 

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack Corp. will reportedly auction the leases of 2,000 stores in March, while GameStop has entered the picture as a bidder. According to Reuters, the bankrupt retailer received court approval to hold the auction on March 17 with Standard General making an initial “stalking horse” bid of $200 million and will move the date back to March 23 if more bidders emerge.