Finance & Capital Management

Pittsburgh - GNC Holdings, Inc. will deploy VeriFone’s newest NFC-enabled multimedia payment device at more than 3,100 of its U.S. retail locations. The payment device will position GNC for potential future endeavors such as EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) payments and customer marketing at the POS.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings has signed a sublease with Dick's Sporting Goods to occupy a portion of its second floor at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. The two-story anchor building will be renovated with Sears maintaining exterior entrances on both levels and the mall entrance on level one.  

Los Angeles – American Apparel has opened a newly remodeled and expanded store in Berlin, Germany. Located in Mitte, the central borough of Berlin, the store was originally opened in February 2007 as American Apparel's third location in the city.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot has named Michael A. Steele as VP, investor relations, effective immediately. Steele reports to Stephen E. Hare, executive VP and CFO.

Steele will develop and execute Office Depot’s investor relations strategy, serving as the primary interface for management with the financial community. He plans to relocate to the Office Depot corporate headquarters in Boca Raton in the coming months.

Minneapolis – Best Buy Co., Inc. saw its revenues for the nine-week holiday period ended Jan. 4, 2014 fall 2.5% from the same period a year earlier. Holiday revenues for the 2013 season were $11.45 billion, compared to $11.75 billion in the 2012 season.

Consolidated same-store sales only grew 0.1%, although online sales increased 23.5%. Best Buy cited a more intense than expected promotional pricing environment as a key factor in its disappointing holiday results.

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

Office Depot has appointed Michael A. Steele as VP of investor relations. Steele, who most recently served as VP of investor relations for OfficeMax, where he had been employed since July 2007, will report to Stephen E. Hare, EVP and CFO.

Steele will develop and execute Office Depot’s investor relations strategy, serving as the primary interface for management with the financial community. He plans to relocate to the Office Depot corporate headquarters in Boca Raton.

The Container Store has kicked off a new purpose-driven marketing campaign focused on its values-based approach to business and conscious capitalism with full-page national newspaper ads as well as videos on the company’s new YouTube Channel.

New York -- The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has filed a formal complaint charging that Wal-Mart Stores violated labor laws in 14 states by taking action against striking and protesting workers.

The NLRB said the retailer illegally fired, disciplined or threatened more than 60 employees in 14 states for participating in legally protected activities to complain about wages and working conditions.

New York -- Sears Canada Inc. has entered into an arrangement with IBM to have the supplier take over the work currently performed at three internal Sears customer contact centers. The outsourcing move will take place over the next nine months and affect 1,345 employees.