Finance & Capital Management

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens will pay $80 million as part of a settlement with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) over a failure to report unusually large shipments of prescription painkillers from a distribution center in Jupiter, Fla. Six Walgreens pharmacies in Florida received tens of thousands of orders for regulated painkillers that were up three times the normal size, but the distribution center did not report them to the DEA as they were required to by law.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation has entered into a letter of intent with an affiliate of Sun Holdings, LLC for the sale of three company-owned shops in Dallas, and for Sun Holdings' further development of the Dallas market. The sale of the stores is subject to conditions, including the execution of a definitive asset purchase agreement and a development agreement pursuant to which Sun Holdings would undertake the further development of new Krispy Kreme shops in Dallas.

Green Bay, Wis. – Shopko intends to open five  stores under its Shopko Hometown banner in Afton, Wyo., St. Peter, Minn., and Winneconne, Ellsworth and Tomahawk, Wis., in late fall of this year.

The Shopko Hometown format is designed to serve smaller rural communities with the same product assortments available in larger areas and Shopko currently operates more than 180 stores in this format.

TORONTO — A same-store sales decline at Lord & Taylor was not enough to keep Hudson's Bay Company's first quarter results for the period ended May 4 in the cold, thanks to strong same-store sales growth at Hudson's Bay.

The company's retail sales were $884 million for quarter, a 4% increase from $848 million for the first quarter a year ago. Consolidated same-store sales grew 4% in the first quarter. Hudson's Bay same-store sales grew nearly 8%, and were partially offset by a same-store sales decline of 1.4% at Lord & Taylor.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ray Cook Golf, a leading golf manufacturer, has appointed John Holst as director of sales. In this role, Holst will oversee sales strategy and partner programs while building the Ray Cook brand.

He will also be charged with building the company's other brands, including Solus Golf, under parent company TGIB Marketing Inc.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer is opening two 190,000-sq.-ft. supercenters in Portage and Warsaw, in northern Indiana, creating more than 500 new jobs.

The family-owned retailer, which already has 32 stores throughout Indiana, built the new locations to LEED standards. The two supercenters are the latest in a $200 million investment this year that includes the construction of six new Meijer supercenters, extensive remodel projects for five additional stores in Michigan and Illinois and major upgrades to two distribution complexes.

FAIRPORT HARBOR, Ohio — OurPets Company, a proprietary pet supply company, has promoted Tim Viancourt to the position of VP of global sales.

The Target board of directors demonstrated its faith in the company’s cash generating capabilities on Wednesday and agreed to up the company’s quarterly dividend 19% to 43 cents a share.
 
The hefty increase ups the annual payout to $1.72 and moves the company closer to a long-term commitment to increase the full-year dividend amount to $3 by 2017. In addition, the company has established a target of growing earnings per share to $8 over the same time frame, up from $4.26 last year.

A 4.2% first quarter same store sales increase at teen retailer Five Below and better than expected results prompted the operator of 258 stores to increase its full year guidance.
 
Sales for the quarter ended May 4 increase 33.1% to $95.6 million and operating income swung to $3.2 million from a prior year loss of $2 million. Net income was $1.6 million compared to a net loss of $1.2 million the prior year.

The Canadian retail landscape shifted again late Wednesday when Safeway announced the sale of its operations there to Sobeys Inc. for $5.8 billion.

The all cash deal will result in net proceeds to Safeway of about $2 billion which will be used to pay down debt. Sobey’s is a Canadian food retailer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited. It is acquiring Safeway’s 223 store operation and 12 manufacturing facilities that last year generated sales of $6.7 billion in Canadian dollars and a $428 million operating profit.