Finance & Capital Management

Dallas — Zale Corporation announced that Brad Furry has been named SVP, CIO. Prior to joining Zale, he spent 21 years at The Neiman Marcus Group, most recently as VP enterprise services.

Furry will have responsibility for all information technology strategy and operations functions throughout the company.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — The apparel, e-commerce, grocery, and luxury segments all showed continued growth in August, as the hardware, restaurant, and automotive repair sectors returned to positive territory, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales.

Target last week announced the donation $250,000 in cash and product to assist with Hurricane Irene relief efforts, pushing the total amount the company has committed to domestic disaster relief to more than $1 million. The donations will be distributed among relief agencies including The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross. In addition, Target is giving gift cards and 10,000 relief kits to other local, regional and national nonprofit organizations for such essentials as water and food.

So far so good. The third quarter at Target is off to a solid start as Target reported a 4.1% same-store sales increase that was squarely in the middle of the company’s guidance range, which called for an increase in the low to mid single digits.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens reported that total sales for August were $6.1 billion, an increase of 7.8% from $5.66 billion for the same month in 2010. Total front-end sales increased 6.8% in August, while comparable store front-end sales increased 4.8%. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 2.5% and basket size increased 2.3%.

Walgreens said Hurricane Irene had no significant net effect on total sales.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Retail same-store sales held steady with a 4.9% gain in August as retailers reported mostly solid back-to-school results at the same time sales at department stores were hurt by the impact of Hurricane Irene and weaker spending plans by shoppers, Kantar Retail reported on Thursday. However, shoppers plan on reducing their spending over the next few months, the company reported.

The economic challenges sweeping the country have been tough, but, like most things in life, it’s not the challenging times that define you, but what you do during them. For leaders in the retail industry the last few years have led to great innovation, providing the retail industry every opportunity to reinvent in areas across their operations including in the area of environmental sustainability. 

CINCINNATI — Kroger has announced the promotion of Joe Fey as president of the Quality Food Centers (QFC) division.

Fey, 57, has been VP merchandising for the company's Michigan division. He succeeds Donna Giordano, who was recently promoted to president of the Ralphs division in California.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Stater Bros. Supermarkets, which operates 167 stores in Southern California, announced that it will be the title sponsor of the largest car show on the West Coast as well as the largest Supermarket Chain sponsored event in America.  

The Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous will be held from Thursday, Sept. 15 through Sunday, Sept. 18 along the historic streets of downtown San Bernardino.  This is the 15th straight year that Stater Bros. has been the title sponsor.

DALLAS — Zale Corp. announced that Brad Furry has been named SVP, CIO. Furry will have responsibility for all information technology strategy and operations functions throughout the company. He will report to Matt Appel, chief administrative officer and CFO.

“We are pleased to welcome Brad to the Zale team. Brad has a demonstrated track record of leveraging information technology in a retail environment,” said Matt Appel. “I am confident he will elevate the impact of technology on our efforts to return the company to profitability.”