Finance & Capital Management

Kroger announced its succession plan for secretary and general counsel. Paul Heldman, 62, a 31-year Kroger veteran who has been serving as the company's general counsel since 1989, secretary since 1992 and EVP since 2006, plans to retire in spring of 2014.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark has appointed Tracy Bahl to the position of executive VP, health plans. In this role, Bahl will lead the teams responsible for supporting health plan clients while also offering health plans guidance.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Angela F. Braly, 52, has been named to the Lowe’s board of directors, with a term expiring at Lowe’s 2014 annual meeting of shareholders. This brings Lowe’s board of directors to 12 members, 11 of whom are independent.

New York -- American Retail Capital Properties (ARCP) has appointed Glenn Kindred as executive VP of its restaurants division. Kindred will join Nicholas S. Schorsch, executive chairman and CEO, Lisa Beeson, COO, Brian S. Block, CFO, and Lisa Pavelka McAlister, chief accounting officer, as part of ARCP's self-managed executive team. Joining ARCP from GE Capital, Mr. Kindred will oversee ARCP's growing portfolio of restaurant and quick service assets.  

Plymouth, Minn. -- The Shareholders Foundation, Inc. has filed a lawsuit on behalf of certain purchasers of Tile Shop common stock over alleged violations of federal securities laws in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between August 22, 2012 and November 13, 2013. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants failed to disclose that one of its largest suppliers, Beijing Pingxiu, is an undisclosed related company secretly controlled by Fumitake Nishi, the brother-in-law of the company's CEO and a Tile Shop employee.

Clearwater, Fla. – Recreational boat retailer MarineMax has named Frances Allen, executive VP and chief brand officer for Denny’s Corporation, to its board of directors. Prior to joining Denny’s, Allen was chief marketing officer for Dunkin Donuts. Her prior roles also include managing marketing efforts at Sony Ericsson Mobil Communications, Pepsi-Cola North America and Frito-Lay.

Suffern, N.Y. — Lane Bryant has opened new stores in Kentucky, New Jersey and Texas. The Kentucky store is located at The Shoppes at Gary Farms in Bowling Green. In New Jersey, the new Lane Bryant has opened at Willow Ridge Plaza in Marlton. The third location is in the Chimney Rock Shopping Center in Odessa, Texas.

Lane Bryant is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascena Retail Group.

North Plainfield, N.J. — Levin Management’s annual pre-holiday retail sentiment survey has found that retailers expect consumers to begin their holiday shopping sooner this year. Specifically, Levin said that 43.3% of responding retailers believe that holiday sales will peak prior to and during the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend sales period.

Only 13.5% believe that sales will peak later — during the weekend before Christmas, a significant drop from last year’s 29.2%.

Bon-Ton is looking to upgrade its supply chain solution and is turning to technology provider ecVision to help the company improve the existing platform it uses.

Seven years ago, Bon-Ton implemented ecVision's solutions for vendor management, PO integration and production and shipment tracking for its international orders. The company is ready for an upgrade, however, so it can efficiently deal with the more than 100,000 SKUs which are sourced and delivered to stores around the country.

Electrolux has named former Sears executive Nolan Pike as SVP and GM of its North American cooking business.

Pike most recently worked for Sears as their Kenmore brand VP and GM and as the top merchant for Sears Home Appliances, the nation’s largest appliance retailer. Additionally, Pike spent many years in manufacturing and led the development, launch and product management of several notable cooking lines.