Finance & Capital Management

Washington, D.C. – The Retail Industry Leaders Association elected Ron Boire, president of Sears and Kmart, to its board of directors, during its semi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. 

The board also re-elected Home Depot chair and CEO Francis Blake, 7-Eleven president and CEO Joseph DePinto, Petco CEO James Myers and J.C. Penney CEO Myron Ullman.

Los Angeles -- PizzaRev, the fast-casual artisan pizza concept, will build a flagship location in Burbank’s shopping and entertainment district at the intersection of E. Palm Ave. & N. San Fernando Blvd.

The company has announced plans to add two new locations in Oxnard and El Segundo, Calif. this summer and to begin franchising soon. PizzaRev currently operates three locations in Studio City, Woodland Hills and Northridge, Calif.

Springfield, Ill. -- OfficeMax Inc. is asking the state of Illinois for tax breaks to keep the company's headquarters in-state after the office supply chain's merger with Office Depot Inc. is complete.

OfficeMax CEO Ravi Saligram and state Sen. Tom Cullerton made their pitch Tuesday during a hearing on the state's pension crisis. Cullerton is a Villa Park Democrat sponsoring legislation to provide incentives if the company keeps at least 2,000 full-time jobs at its headquarters and other non-retail locations.

PARK CITY, Utah — Skullcandy is relocating certain departments, making changes to its executive team and searching for a new CFO so it can better align its product, marketing and sales functions. 

As such, the company is relocating its marketing, creative, business development and legal departments, as well as certain sales and international personnel to its headquarters in Park City, Utah, and will close the office in San Clemente, Calif., which has historically housed significant portions of these functions. 

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- The Sembler Co. has added nearly 900,000 sq. ft. to its portfolio of third-party management and leasing assignments through the end of the year’s second quarter.

New assignments include co-managing 672,259 sq. ft. of retail properties across Florida and Georgia with Community Reinvestment Partners II. Sembler will handle leasing for most of the properties.

Burlington, N.J. -- Burlington Coat Factory credited the unusually cold winter experienced by many parts of the country, which dampened the first quarter results of many retailers, for helping to drive its strong financial performance during the first quarter.

The retailer reported net income of $11.1 million, a substantial improvement from $842,000 in the first quarter of the prior year, primarily driven by sales growth and improved gross margin rate which was in turn partially offset by increased selling and administrative expenses.

New York -- Johnny Rockets has been acquired by an affiliate of private-equity group Sun Capital Partners Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Johnny Rockets operates about 300 corporate and franchise-owned hamburger restaurants in 30 states and 16 countries, including 17 Six Flags amusement park locations and 11 Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

WEST CHESTER, Pa. — QVC, a global video and e-commerce retailer, has appointed former Starbucks executive Mustafa El-Rafey as the company’s SVP of talent management and rewards. El-Rafey will lead the development and implementation of a dynamic talent management and rewards strategy for QVC.

He will report to EVP of human resources and workplace services Beth Rubino.