Finance & Capital Management

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney Company has named Ed Record as CFO, effective March 24. He will also serve as executive VP. Record, 45, comes to Penney from regional department store chain Stage Stores, where he most recently served as COO and, before that, as CFO.

Record will succeed Ken Hannah, who was hired in May 2012 under former CEO Ron Johnson.

Madison, Wisc. – American TV & Appliance, an 11-store electronics chain with locations in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, is preparing to go out of business. The company is closing stores Feb. 18 and 19 to mark down prices and will launch its going-out-of-business sale at all locations on Feb. 20.

Abilene, Kansas – A group called Concerned Alco Stockholders (CAS), led shareholders David Pointer and Dilip Singh, it intends to mail its own proxy statement to stockholders of Alco Stores Inc. for the purpose of giving Alco stockholders the opportunity to vote for new board members at the Alco 2014 annual meeting of stockholders.

New York -- Revionics, a provider of end-to-end merchandise optimization solutions, appointed the company’s president and CEO Marc Hafner as chairman of the board.

Hafner has served as president and CEO since 2010 and with this newly added role he will lead the company’s strategic planning and accelerate its global growth.

La Jolla, Calif. — Ramsey Real Estate Group has announced the commencement of a $600,000 renovation to Decatur Inn Plaza in Las Vegas. The renovation will include new storefronts, design elements, exterior finishes, building systems, landscaping and parking lot work. Vacant suites will receive vanilla shell treatments. Structural elements will be repaired and replaced. The renovations will also include rebuilding the property’s monument sign. Existing businesses will remain open during the renovation.

Sidney, Neb. -- Richard N. Cabela, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the $3.6 billion, outdoor outfitters chain, Cabela’s Inc., died Monday at his home in Sidney, Neb. No cause was given. He was 77.  

Cabela served as chairman of the board until June 2013, when he transitioned to chairman emeritus and his brother, Jim Cabela, became chairman.

Dublin, Ohio -- The Wendy’s Company announced the sale of 70 restaurants in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex to Texas-based MUY Hamburger Partners, a Wendy's  franchisee. The transaction is designed to promote new restaurant growth and reimaging, while generating a more predictable revenue stream for the company.

San Francisco -- Wine.com, announced the addition of Peter Elarde as chief marketing officer and Greg Tatem as VP, engineering to the Wine.com executive team.
   
"We're on a roll. Wine.com is profitable, growing, hiring and innovating," said Rich Bergsund, CEO. "Peter and Greg are bringing new energy and talent to our management team, and will be instrumental as we continue building Wine.com into a great company, great brand, and an exciting place to work."

Minneapolis – Security staff at Target Corp. reportedly warned management of the risk of a cyber attack before the retailer’s widely publicized November 2013 data breach took place. According to the Wall Street Journal, at least one security analyst at Target recommended the retailer perform a more thorough review of its payment network as early as September 2013.

While we’re only just getting started on 2014, already one of the big retail stories is store closings. While the economy is far from robust, we aren’t in a recession either, and so at first these closings might seem a little surprising. I don’t see it that way, however: The recent spate of planned store closing for 2014 is exactly what we should expect from an industry in transition. It’s not a crisis, so much as it is a realignment.