Finance & Capital Management

Camp Hill, Pa. - For the four-week period ended Jan. 25, Rite Aid’s same-store sales grew 1.8%. Front-end same-store sales decreased 1.3%, attributable to a decrease in flu-related over-the-counter drug sales.

Total drug sales for the month increased 1.5% to $1.94 billion, compared to $1.91 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Salt Lake City – Overstock.com reported substantial increases in net income during the full year and fourth quarter 2013. During the full fiscal year, net income jumped 503% to $88.5 million from $14.7 million the prior fiscal year.

During the fourth quarter, net income rose an ever larger 737% to $73.6 million from $8.8 million. Revenue increased 19% during the full fiscal year to $1.3 billion from $1.09 billion, and grew 16% to $397.6 million from $342 million during the fourth quarter.

Toronto – Sears Canada, which laid off more than 1,300 employees on Jan. 15, is cutting an additional 624 jobs. In a press release, the retailer said it is modifying its store structure to improve efficiency and increase the effectiveness of the chain of communication between management and the store associate teams within the stores.

San Francisco -- The trend of companies adopting recurring revenue surged in 2013, with brand names using new billing and pricing models to grow sales and deepen customer loyalty. Recurring revenue technology provider Aria Systems projects this surge will continue in 2014 as more companies adopt recurring revenue models because of their flexibility and convenience for customers.

Intrix Technology, a leading payment processor, has named Peter N. Matino as chief sales officer, a newly created position.

In his new role, Matino is responsible for building a nationwide sales organization and executing an integrated sales strategy as well as developing and executing corporate marketing strategies.

Littleton, Mass. -- Preliminary unaudited revenues for Dover Saddlery during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 exceeded revenues in the fourth quarter of 2012 by 13.8%, increasing to approximately $30.3 million. Revenues from the retail channel increased 22.6% to approximately $13.1 million and revenues from the direct channel increased 7.8% to approximately $17.2 million.

Walmart Supercenters in California benefit communities by supporting additional job creation, small business growth and more robust sales tax revenues, according to a new economic impact report.

The study was conducted by economist Lon Hatamiya of the Hatamiya Group and the results were announced by Walmart, which is sure to cause opponents of the company to question the validity of the results. That said, key findings of the study show the following:

Vancouver, Canada -- As part of a restructuring Best Buy Canada will be consolidating sales departments and reducing management layers in Future Shop and Best Buy stores, resulting in the layoff of about 950 full-time employees across both Future Shop and Best Buy brands. All store employees were notified individually about these changes and those impacted were provided with severance packages.