Finance & Capital Management

Tractor Supply is scheduled to provide complete second-quarter results in just under two weeks. But the first half of the quarter was affected by bad weather, which caused softness in sales, particularly in seasonal merchandise, prompting the company to lower its full-year guidance.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Southeast on July 19th.  The store openings are in The Village on Pooler Parkway in Pooler, Georgia, and Dixie Valley Shopping Center in Southwest Louisville, Kentucky.  These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.

GE Capital is providing MerchSource with a $130 million senior credit facility providing working capital for the company’s operations in the U.S. and Hong Kong.
 
MerchSource, headquartered in Irvine, California, ideates, designs, develops and distributes a variety of consumer products in categories including electronics, toys, home décor, household accessories and pet supplies. Its products are sold in retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, CVS, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.
 

Unilever has sold its Slim-Fast brand to Kainos Capital. The supplier of food, home and personal care products will retain a minority stake in the business. Terms of the transaction, which was completed late this week, were not disclosed.

The transaction includes the Slim-Fast trademark and the global Slim-Fast business portfolio. Slim-Fast is sold throughout North America and in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Latham, New York -- DWM Facilities Maintenance announces today the promotion of Paul Meeks to executive VP of projects.  Meeks was an integral part of founding DWM with his brother David and has been with the company since its inception in 1997.

Supervalu has begun supplying the first of 18 Rainbow stores that are being acquired as part of the transactions that were announced May 7 between Roundy’s and a consortium of Supervalu and independent retailers.

Following the store conversions, Supervalu will supply all 18 of the acquired stores out of its Hopkins, Minn., distribution center.
 

Drawbridge, a leading cross-device advertising platform, has added former Apple exec Andy Miller to its board of directors.

Miller is a current adviser and the former president and COO of Leap Motion, as well as a former Partner at Highland Capital. Previously, Miller was VP of mobile advertising at Apple, reporting directly to Steve Jobs. He was co-founder and CEO of Quattro Wireless, which was acquired by Apple in 2009 and would become Apple's mobile advertising platform, iAd.

New York -- Retail sales generally improved in June, helped by good weather and big discounts as retailers look to clear inventory for the back-to-school season.
 
Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a 6% increase in June same-store sales, helped by higher fuel prices. Its results topped Wall Street estimates.

Excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates and gasoline prices, Costco’s same-store sales increased 6% for the five-week period ended July 6. The metric rose 5% in the United States and 7% overseas.