Finance & Capital Management

Newport Beach, Calif. -- Engaged Capital, an investment firm specializing in small and mid-cap North American equities and beneficial owner of approximately 400,000 shares of the common stock of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. sent a letter to the company’s board of directors on Dec. 3. In its letter, Engaged Capital highlighted the upcoming expiration of Abercrombie chairman and CEO Michael Jeffries’ employment contract on February 1, 2014 as an opportunity for the board to set a new direction for the company.

Safeway has reached a definitive agreement to sell 11 of its Dominick's stores in the Chicago metropolitan area in a cash and lease assumption transaction to Roundy's. Roundy's will take possession of the stores during a transition period that will take place in the next two months.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Evansville, Ind. – Shoe Carnival had a generally disappointing third quarter fiscal 2013, with net income falling 11% to $10.9 million from $12.2 million. Net sales also declined 3.5%, from $244.4 million to $235.8 million.

Shoe Carnival attributed part of the year-over-year decline to a shift from a 53-week to a 52-week fiscal year, which resulted in one fewer week of back-to-school shopping activity in the third quarter and about $21.2 million less in sales.

New York -- Investor Engaged Capital LLC has urged Abercrombie & Fitch to start a search for a new chief executive officer and consider selling the company, Bloomberg reported. The company owns less than 1% of the retailer’s shares outstanding.

Third party logistics provider Transplace named veteran finance executive Tony Cossentino as its new CFO reporting to CEO Tom Sanderson.

Cossentino replaces Steve Crowther, who joined Transplace in 2007 and helped guide the company through management-led private equity deals with CI Capital Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group, as well as strategic acquisitions of SCO Logistics, Torus Freight Systems and partnership with Celtic International.

Winston-Salem, N.C. -- Krispy Kreme has signed a development agreement with Dulce Restaurants, LLC, to develop 10 new Krispy Kreme shops in Houston over the next five years.

Dulce Restaurants, LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Sun Holdings, LLC, currently operates three Krispy Kreme locations in Dallas, and has plans to open an additional 15 Dallas shops through 2018.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell 11 of its Dominick's stores in the Chicago metropolitan area in a cash and lease assumption transaction to Roundy's, Inc. Roundy's will take possession of the stores during a transition period that will take place over the next two months.

Boise, Idaho -- WinCo Foods will open a store in Glibert, Ariz., on Dec. 5. The supermarket occupies approximately 97,000 sq. ft. and will include WinCo's new red and black decor package that creates a solid, clean feel and coordinates with the hundreds of new WinCo Foods private label products the company has recently introduced.