Finance & Capital Management

GARNER, N.C. — Butterball has moved to diversify its product portfolio with the acquisition of family-owned and operated Gusto Packing Co., located in Montgomery, Ill.

Gusto Packing Co. offers six basic product lines: Hickory & Apple Wood Smoked Bacon, Bone-In Smoked Pork & Turkey Products, Smoked Boneless Hams, Cooked Hams, Pork & Turkey Deli Meats and Spiral Sliced Hams.

New York -- Two directors of Best Buy Co.  have resigned from the board of the retailer, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

G. "Mike" Mikan, who served as Best Buy's interim CEO in the wake of CEO Brian Dunn’s resignation last April, has left the board to become president of ESL Investments Inc., the hedge fund run by Sears’ Edward Lampert. Mikan, whose appointment is effective Jan. 1, will report to Lampert, the firm said today in a statement.

New York -- Starbucks Coffee Co. is one of seven bidders for Tully's Coffee, according to The Seattle Times. The bids were filed on Thursday as part of an auction process for Tully's, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October.

The report said that Starbucks’ offer is for about half of the Tully’s stores. Tully's currently has 47 company-operated stores.
 

Arlington, Va. -- The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) issued the following statement in response to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) employer mandate proposed rules filed Wednesday in the Federal Register.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- Dollar Tree has announced that it intends to expand its distribution center in Marietta, Oak., by an additional 400,000 sq. ft. More than 100 full time positions will be created as a result of the expansion.

The facility in Marietta opened in 2003 and is currently 603,000 sq. ft. This facility supplies products to stores across eleven states, including all of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, and portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

WASHINGTON -- The National Retail Federation on Wednesday welcomed an agreement reached between the White House and Congress on a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. The agreement was approved by the Senate early this morning and could be considered by the House as soon as today.


SEATTLE -- Starbucks Coffee Company announced that it has completed its acquisition of Teavana Holdings has formally closed, making Teavana a wholly-owned subsidiary of Starbucks. Teavana has some 300 locations, primarily in 300 shopping malls across the nation.  

The acquisition is the the latest addition to Starbucks emerging brands portfolio, which also includes Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tazo.

NEW YORK & LONDON — Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, has teamed up with Pearson, a leading global learning company, to accelerate customer access to digital content.

New York City -- Holiday-related sales rose 0.7% from October 28 through December 24, compared with a 2% rise last year, according to a preliminary report from MasterCard Advisors Spending Pulse.

"It has been a very uneven industry performance, probably at least for the last year, and that certainly continued into the holiday season," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, in a Reuters report.

New York City -- Barnes & Noble reported Friday that its holiday sales will likely miss internal projections as its Nook e-reader performed worse than expected during the holiday selling period.

The book seller also disclosed on Friday an investment by London-based media and education company Pearson of $89.5 million in cash in the e-reader subsidiary, representing a 5% equity stake.

Pearson joins Microsoft Inc. as an investor in the Nook subsidiary.