Finance & Capital Management

British supermarket giant Tesco has named John Allan as chairman, ending a four-month search after Richard Broadbent resigned amid an accounting scandal.

Allan, 66, will join the board and be appointed chairman on March 1, when Broadbent will step down from the board, Tesco said in a statement.

"I'm very pleased to be taking on this role at such a critical moment for the business and look forward to working with the new executive team and the board," Allan said.

Canton, Mass. – Dunkin’ Donuts is growing its presence in the Hoosier state. The company has signed multi-unit store development agreements with two existing franchise groups to develop 46 restaurants in Indiana during the next several years.  

Brentwood, Texas -- Tractor Supply Company will open its 1,400th store, in Eunice, Louisiana, on Feb. 21. The location is one 110 to 115 new stores the retailer plans to open this year.

"We are thrilled to be celebrating another milestone in Tractor Supply's growth story, with the opening of our 1,400thstore," said president and CEO Greg Sandfort. "We believe there is still tremendous expansion potential ahead, and we are excited for the opportunity to serve the rural lifestyle in new markets."

Luxury online retailer Gilt Groupe has been preparing for an IPO for a year now, but didn’t have enough cash. Now the retailer says it has raised another $50 million from venture backers.

Founded in 2007, Gilt is a New York-based e-commerce retailer that holds flash sales of discounted luxury items from clothing to home décor. The $50 million infusion brings Gilt’s total amount raised to about $250 million.

New York -- The consumer electronics and furniture sectors of the retail industry can look forward to growth in 2015, while the apparel sector faces a more mixed outlook. That was the message sounded by CIT Commercial Services executives during a roundtable discussion, "Everyone Looks Good in the Black: Retailers in the Economic Rebound,” part of the CIT Executive Insights series.

During the discussion, each CIT executive offered their views on the top trends they see ahead in various sectors of the retail market:

New York – Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has increased his investment holding in EBay Inc. In his regulatory filing for fourth quarter 2014, Icahn disclosed that he purchased about 446,000 shares of EBay.

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.
 

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.