Finance & Capital Management

Burlington, Mass. -- KeyPoint Partners has released The KeyPoint Report for Eastern Massachusetts/Greater Boston 2013. The report examines supply, occupancy, absorption and retailer expansion and contraction for virtually every retail property in the region. The 2013 report also includes a ten-year historical perspective that discusses the regional retail economy before, during and since the recession.

New York -- RadioShack Corporation has opened the first of the next generation of stores scheduled to roll out across the country and around the world over the next several months.

Seattle -- TC Global (dba Tully’s Coffee Shops) has announced the completion of the sale of substantially all of its assets to Global Baristas, an investment group led by Patrick Dempsey. Global Baristas bought the assets in an auction in bankruptcy court last January. The company plans to continue to operate Tully’s Coffee Shops and to retain all of the employees.

James Petty has joined private equity owned Vestis Retail Group as CEO, effective July 8, to drive new growth opportunities.

Petty joins Vestis, parent company of Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports, after serving since 2007 as president of retail stores for Carter’s Inc. Petty left Carter’s last December after a restructuring resulted in Carter’s relocating its retail group to its Atlanta headquarters from Connectticut. Prior to Carter’s, Petty held senior roles at Limited Too and Gap, Inc.

Longtime financial executive and former Walmart U.S. CFO Michael Fung is helping discounter 99 Cents Only modernize inventory systems that have resulted in a series of accounting issues.

Fung, 62, retired from Walmart in early 2012, but was called back into service this past January by the private equity owners of 99 Cents Only. Fung was named interim chief administrative officer at the company to oversee finance, information technology and real estate. In addition, 99 Cents Only board member and former Food Lion president and CEO Richard Anicetti was named interim CEO.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens reported June sales of $5.8 billion, an increase of 2.5% from the same month in fiscal 2012.

June pharmacy sales increased by 2.9%, while comparable store pharmacy sales increased 3.3% and increased by a calendar day-shift adjusted 560 basis points. This year's June had one additional Sunday and one fewer Friday compared with June 2012, Walgreens reported. Calendar day-shift adjusted comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 280 basis points due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months. 

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. has appointed former senator and secretary of the interior Kenneth Salazar to its board of directors. He replaces Mary Dillon, who resigned from the board last month after being named CEO of Ulta Beauty.

Salazar, who recently began working for the law firm WilmerHale, served as a Democratic member of the Senate from Colorado from 2005 to 2009 and as interior secretary under the Obama administration from 2009 until earlier this year, when he was replaced by Sally Jewell. 

Molson Coors Brewing Company has appointed former human resources director of Vodafone Vicky Cookson as the company’s chief people officer for Molson Coors Europe, based in Prague, Czech Republic, effective Sept. 1.

Cookson will report directly to global chief legal and people officer Sam Walker and join the European leadership team led by Mark Hunter. Cookson is human resources executive with international and cross-cultural experience. 

Progress Financial may not be directly affiliated with Walmart, but a Bloomberg story this week reveals the companies are connected in some interesting ways.

Peru tends to be a logical new market for many Chilean retailers and Walmart will be next, according to unconfirmed reports from a company executive who spoke to Reuters.

The news agency this week said Walmart, which is already one of the leading retailers in Chile, will begin work this year to open stores in Peru and plans to form a local management team. As expected, Walmart denied the report but did acknowledge it planned to run a quality assurance office in Peru for procuring products.