Finance & Capital Management

Au Bon Pain is updating its brand experience with a new customer-centric design that gives the store a more distinct personality. It also makes the space easier to navigate, with the layout redesigned to speed service.

“We’re taking the customer experience to the next level,” said Sue Morelli, CEO for Au Bon Pain, which operates 318 locations in the United States and internationally. “The response we’ve been getting to our new prototype has validated our decision to accelerate our growth, including going to new markets nationally.”

DALLAS — Tuesday Morning has revised its fiscal year guidance and now expects total net sales to be in the range of $820 million to $830 million and comparable-store sales to be slightly negative for the full year of fiscal 2011. Diluted earnings, based on these sales results, are now expected to be approximately 25 cents to 30 cents per share for fiscal 2011, the company.

New York City -- Ron Johnson’s decision to leave Apple, where he serves as senior VP of retail, to take the reins of J.C. Penney Co. leaves the tech giant without a retail chief as it begins to ramp up its international expansion.

Apple plans to open 40 stores this fiscal year, with almost three-quarters of them outside the United States, the company announced in April. A big growth area is Asia.
Apple has said very little with regards to its plans to replace Johnson.

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy reported Tuesday that net income for the first quarter fell 12% to $136 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, hurt by increased promotions and lower demand for such items as flat-panel televisions and digital cameras. But strong showings in China, mobile phone sales and online performance pushed helped to boost profit and revenue past analyst estimates.

PLANO, Texas — Things just got a whole lot more interesting in the mid-tier department store space now that JCPenney has hired former Apple executive Ron Johnson to be its CEO. Johnson is a former Target merchandising executive who for the past 11 years oversaw the growth of Apple’s wildly successful and widely heralded retail operation.

DALLAS — Karen Katz, president and CEO of Neiman Marcus announced that John E. Koryl will be joining the company, June 20, as president of Neiman Marcus Direct. Koryl succeeds Gerald Barnes, who will become EVP, chief merchant Neiman Marcus Direct.

Koryl, 40, joins Neiman Marcus from Williams-Sonoma where he was the SVP e-commerce marketing and analytics. Prior to Williams-Sonoma, Koryl was senior director marketing solutions at eBay and has worked at UmbrellaBank, Creditland.com, and Accenture.

WASHINGTON — Retail spending for the month of May experienced a slight drop of 0.2% to $387.1 billion, though the advanced estimates noted that May sales were 7.7% higher than the year-ago period, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The government agency also reported that total sales for the March through May period were up 7.5% from the same period a year ago.

RYE, N.Y. — Jarden Corp., a manufacturer of a variety of branded consumer products, announced that James Lillie was named CEO effective immediately.  Martin Franklin, formerly chairman and CEO of Jarden Corp., will serve as executive chairman, overseeing corporate strategy, including growth initiatives, corporate culture and philosophy.

Stevens, Pa. -- A survey released Tuesday by Unity Marketing revealed the list of retailers frequented by the most wealthy American shoppers – those earning $250,000 and up.

Barneys New York, Nordstrom and Bergdorf Goodman ranked as the top luxury department stores among the ultra-affluent in the Luxury Report 2011. However, the survey also uncovered signs that the wealthiest consumers are slowing their pace of shopping in these stores.

Dallas -- Alliance Data Systems Corp. said Tuesday it has signed a long-term extension agreement with J. Crew Group to continue providing the retailer with reward program and private-label credit-card services, accepted at J. Crew stores and through J. Crew’s web and catalog channels.