Finance & Capital Management

Boise, Idaho -- Albertsons LLC plans to close four underperforming stores: one in Arizona, one in Louisiana and two in Texas.

The closings will leave Albertsons with 205 stores in the Southwest and the South.

New York City -- Retail companies are experiencing a period of sustained turnover at the top, according to the a new report by Russell Reynolds Associates, which examined turnover and recruitment trends between January 2006 and April 2011 at 81 retail chains headquartered in the United States with annual revenues of $1 billion or more.

The study,” A Perfect Storm: CEO Challenges in Retail,” found that 59% of the retail companies studied experienced a change in CEO leadership during this five-year period. 
In other findings:

COMMERCE, Calif. — Sales at 99-Cents Only Stores rose 10.6% to $403.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 over sales of $365.4 milllion for the same quarter last year.  

The company's overall same-store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 increased 8.5%. The number of same-store-sales transactions increased 5.6% and the average transaction size increased to $9.86 from $9.59.

BRUSSELS — Belgian supermarket operator Delhaize Group, which operates the Food Lion, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys, Hannaford Supermarkets, Reid's and Sweetbay regional banners in the United States, said Thursday it will close 113 Food Lion stores and eliminate the Bloom banner as part of a reorganization. The Fool Lion stores slated for closure are primarily in markets in which the company has the least store density.

SAN FRANCISCO — Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Thursday it has cut its fiscal Q4 earnings outlook below Wall Street expectations due to heavy holiday promotions levels.

The company said it had to offer discounts to entice shoppers this holiday season. Although earnings guidance has been reduced to below expectations, Williams-Sonoma’s revenue outlook remains in line with Wall Street, trimmed to a range of $1.24 billion to $1.26 billion. The company had previously expected revenue as high as $1.27 billion.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target's board of directors has approved a new $5 billion share repurchase program, which will be implemented upon the completion of the company's current $10 billion program.

Target said while it expects to complete its current program early this year, it expects to complete the new $5 billion authorization in the next two to three years, saying the program "represents an opportunity to apply excess cash flow to what [the company believes] will be an attractive long-term investment."

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- According to a report by Bloomberg, CIT Group has decided to stop financing loans to suppliers waiting to be paid by Sears.

CIT Group has not commented on the matter.

Sears Holdings Corp. told Bloomberg that it disagrees with CIT's decision but said it won't have a big impact on its operations. It said that CIT's payables represented less than 5% of its inventories, and noted that other lenders are still financing the loans.
 

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corp. confirmed Thursday that John Goodman, its chief of apparel and home division, has resigned the company, effective immediately.

Goodman was hired two years ago as executive VP of apparel and home, charged with turning around the retailer’s clothing business. His departure, which Sears says happened last week, coincides with the Jan. 3 arrival of Ron Boire, the former Brookstone president and CEO, as executive VP and chief merchandising officer for Sears and Kmart brands.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports should be nearly flat during January compared with the same month last year, but significant year-over-year increases are expected this spring.

Conshohocken, Pa. -- Ikea said Thursday it plans to install solar energy panels on five more of its U.S. locations – all of them in the Midwest. Installation is slated for summer 2012 completion and will expand Ikea’s solar presence to nearly 85% of its U.S. locations.