Finance & Capital Management

Cheshunt, U.K. – Philip Clarke, CEO of leading U.K. grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco plc is publicly resisting calls for his resignation following a 6% decline in annual profits and 3% quarterly drop in U.K. same-store sales. Tesco has reported falling profits for two consecutive years following 20 years of continual profit growth.

New York -- Sycamore Partners announced that it has reorganized the remaining businesses of The Jones Group into four independent operating companies: the Nine West Group, a jeanswear company (which will be named later), Jones New York, and the Kasper Group. Each will operate as an independent company led by its own management team. In line with the new decentralized structure, Wesley R. Card will step down as CEO and John T. McClain will step down as CFO of The Jones Group

Sears Holdings has tapped Arun Arora as SVP and president, Home Services, in which role he will take charge of the business unit's In-Home Repair Services, Service Contracts, Carry-In Repair, Sears Home Improvement Services, Parts Direct, Commercial Sales and Sears Franchise Businesses.

Gap’s Banana Republic brand has named Marissa Webb as creative director and EVP of design, effective April 28. She will report to global president of Banana Republic, Jack Calhoun.

Webb will be responsible for guiding the brand’s overall creative direction, as well as leading global product design for Banana Republic Women’s, Men’s and Accessories.  

nGage Labs, a leading provider of personalized mobile engagement technology, has named Dave Alberty as CFO.

Alberty was most recently SVP and global controller of TriVita, a multi-national supplement company based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Pleasanton, Calif. - Safeway Inc. has completed the distribution to its stockholders of 37.8 million shares of Class B common stock of Blackhawk Networks Holdings Inc. owned by Safeway. After the completion of the distribution, Safeway no longer owns any shares of Class B common stock of Blackhawk.

Social sharing, editorial commerce and improved targeting are said to be among the technological upgrades leading footwear brand and retailer Steve Madden has made to its Web site.

City of Commerce, Calif. – 99 Cents Only Stores LLC reported a widening net loss in an abbreviated 10-month fiscal 2014 which was shortened from the Saturday closest to the end of March to the Friday closest to the end of January. Net loss grew to $12.48 million from $8.9 million.

Total net sales were $1.53 billion, down 8% from $1.66 billion. Same-store sales rose 3.7%.