Finance & Capital Management

Davenport, Iowa -- Some retailers just keep growing, despite economic headwinds, fickle customers and competitive pressures. The family-operated, 140-year-old Von Maur department store company, based in Davenport, Iowa, is one of those retailers. In an exclusive video interview, Chain Store Age senior editor Katherine Boccaccio spoke with Jim von Maur, president, about the chain’s strategy and how it keeps growing in an uncertain economy.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Revenue at stores open at least one year climbed 8% last month for discount retailer Stein Mart. According to Stein Mart, strong sales of linens and ladies’ casual and career sportswear helped drive revenue growth and offset weaker sales in dresses, ladies’ accessories and men’s sportswear.
 
For the quarter to date, revenue at stores open at least a year increased 1.2% and total revenue climbed 3.8% to $321.4 million.

New York -- Ikea has officially plugged-in the solar energy system installed at its store in Stoughton, Mass. The 118,000-sq.-ft. array consists of a 590.8-kW (DC) system, built with 4,220 laminated panels. It will produce approximately 695,000 kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 479 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), eliminating the emissions of 94 cars or powering 60 homes yearly (calculating clean energy equivalents).  

NEW YORK — Foot Locker has started the ball rolling toward acquiring Runners Point Warenhandelsges, a specialty athletic store and online retailer based in Recklinghausen, Germany, for a total cash consideration of approximately $94 million. 

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Memphis -- Fred’s, Inc. reported a slight boost in total sales for the first three months of fiscal 2013 compared to the same period last year – an increase from $500.5 million to $501.4 million. However, comparable store sales during the period decreased 1.3%, compared to a 0.3% drop a year earlier.

Total sales for the four weeks ending May 4 rose 3% from $147.6 million to $152.2 million. Comparable store sales for the month increased 1.2% compared with a decline of 0.3% in the same period last year.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The sun shined favorably this month on PriceSmart, which operates 31 warehouse clubs in 12 countries and one U.S. territory.

For the month of April 2013 net sales increased 11% to $176 million from $159 million in April a year earlier. For the eight months ended April 30, net sales increased 11% to $1,484 million from $1,337 million for the eight months ended April a year earlier. There were 30 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of April 2013 and 29 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of April 2012.

Plano, Texas -- In preliminary results, J.C. Penney Co. on Tuesday reported that same-store sales in its first quarter decreased approximately 16.6%, a deeper drop than was expected.  

The company, which will report full results on May 16, said that it anticipates total sales of approximately $2.635 billion for the quarter, down some 16.4% from $3.152 billion in the same period last year.