Finance & Capital Management

MINNEAPOLIS — The president of Shoppers Food and Pharmacy will transition to a new role, parent company Supervalu announced Tuesday.

Fort Meyers, Fla. -- Chico's FAS Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter net income rose a better-than-expected 17% to 53.6 million in the three months through April 28, compared with $45.9 million a year ago. The chain also bumped up its revenue outlook for the year.

Revenue rose 21% to $650.8 million, beating expectations, from $537.2 million a year ago. The company September acquisition of women's clothing chain Boston Proper added $33.7 million in sales during the quarter.

As part of Chain Store Age’s lead-up coverage to RECon 2012, to be held May 20-23 in Las Vegas, we talked with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Lew Kornberg about what his expectations are for the big real estate show. Visit JLL’s booth at RECon, Central Hall, C1001.

What are your expectations for RECon 2012 in terms of activity, attitude, priorities?

By Gary C. Smith, NAEIR.org

When Children’s Wish Foundation International, an Atlanta-based charity, hosts scrapbooking or craft parties for children in the hospital, it turns to a gifts-in-kind organization and its catalog of donated merchandise for supplies. The two organizations then coordinate shipments of stuffed animals, Halloween costumes, craft materials, toys, videos and other items to hospitals to help fulfill the wishes of children in need.
 

New York -- J.C. Penney executives laid out further details of their strategy going forward during the chain’s quarterly conference call with investors. The call followed the release of J.C. Penney’s first quarter results, when it reported a worse-then-expected loss of $163 million, and a 19% drop in same-store sales.

J.C. Penney said it would launch a new private label apparel brand, jcp, for both men and women. The brand is set to debut in August.

LAKELAND, Fla. — Gino DiGrazia, who currently serves as VP and controller of Publix's business analysis and reporting, has been promoted to VP finance. In addition to his current responsibilities for business analysis and reporting, DiGrazia assumes many of the responsibilities previously held by Kelly Underhill, director of tax and treasury, who retired from Publix on March 30.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. reported a better-than-expected 1.2% increase in first-quarter profit as warm weather and an early Easter helped drive sales. The chain also raised its earnings forecast for the full year.

Target’s net earnings for the quarter ended April 28 were $697 million, compared with $689 million in the year-ago period.

“We’re very pleased with our first-quarter earnings, which benefited from better-than-expected sales,” Gregg Steinhafel, Target’s CEO, said in a statement.

New York -- Saks Inc. reported Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended April 28 rose 13.2% to $32.1 million, from $28.4 million last year.

Revenue for the period climbed 3.8% to $753.6 million, missing Wall Street’s expected $762.6 million. Same-store sales rose 4.8%.