Finance & Capital Management

Office Depot saw its profit rise in the third quarter as cost-cuts and a $240 million tax benefit helped to offset the impact of lower revenue.   Profit in the quarter totaled $44 million, topping analysts’ forecasts. Sales fell 7% to $2.84 billion.  

Online growth — and along with it, online market share — continues to accelerate.   The trajectory is so strong that sales are on pace to hit $440 billion in 2017, a leap from $395 billion expected in 2016, according to “U.S. Online Sales Forecast: Omni-Channel Retailing Challenged by Its Success,” a report from FTI Consulting.   

Zara, the trendy global fashion retailer, will soon assume a place between Macy’s and Nordstrom at the Cherry Hill Mall in suburban Philadelphia.   

Luxury handbag and accessories brand Coach posted a 22% increase in profit for the first quarter, a result that one analyst said show the company’s turnaround is delivering.   Profit totaled $117.4 million in the quarter, or 42 cents per diluted share. Adjusted net income for the quarter totaled $126 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, slightly ahead of forecasts.  

Kona Grill is looking to minimize energy consumption and cut down on waste.    The restaurant company selected Ecova to provide waste expense management strategy and utility expense data management for the American grill and sushi bar chain’s more than 43 restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico.     

Staples wants to help its associates pay back their student loans.   The retailer is launching a new student loan repayment plan for sales associates as part of a broader recruiting effort. The first part of the program initially targets specific new hire sales associates and existing internal candidates who have been identified as high potential and top performers. Staples said it will expand the program to additional groups in the future.  

Macy’s Inc. is living up to its promise to downsize.   The department store giant announced it has sold five stores to General Growth Properties for $46 million. All but four of the locations will be closed by spring 2017.    

DLC Management Corp.’s joint acquisition of 16 properties with DRA Advisors this month increased the square footage of its portfolio by 26% and its dollar value by 17%. DLC president and CEO Adam Ifshin aims to increase that dollar contribution in the years to come.    “We don’t buy value-add properties and baby-sit them,” he told Chain Store Age. “We come to them with a business plan and ask ourselves ‘How do we add value?’”  

Amazon’s cloud services business is on fire.   Amazon Web Services holds a 45% market share of the worldwide public market for Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is greater than Microsoft, Google and IBM’s shares combined, according to a quarterly analysis by Synergy Research Group.  

Lumber Liquidators widened its net loss in the third quarter, though the retailer did move the needle on net sales, which rose 3.4%.   Lumber Liquidators reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $18.4 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $8.5 million in the year-ago period, amid higher-than-expected expenses, including legal fees, as the company continues to rebound from last year's investigation into formaldehyde levels in flooring it had previously sold.