Finance & Capital Management

Sally Beauty Holdings observed a major milestone recently with the opening of its 5,000th location, but the $3.8 billion Texas-based retailer has even bigger ambitions for more stores and new services as it vies for market share with mass and specialty players.
 

KFC is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a store design makeover as it looks to refresh 70% of its 4,500 locations by the end of 2017.

The chain, owned by Yum! Brands, tapped FRCH Design Worldwide to come up with a modern look that would also highlight the playfulness and outsized personality of the brand’s legendary founder, Colonel Sanders.

Sally Beauty Holdings observed a major milestone recently with the opening of its 5,000th location, but the $3.8 billion Texas-based retailer has even bigger ambitions for more stores and new services as it vies for market share with mass and specialty players.

New York -- RCS Real Estate Advisors announced it has been retained by Hancock Fabrics, debtor-in-possession, to generate value for the estate through the sale of leases. RCS Real Estate Advisors senior VP Spence J. Mehl made the announcement.

Nordstrom is launching a new national marketing campaign withprint, digital and video components as the retailer seeks to improve its connection with younger customers.

New York -- Brixmor Property Group announced today that it has named Daniel Hurwitz, former CEO of DDR Corp. and the founder and CEO of Raider Hill Advisors as Interim CEO, effective immediately. Hurwitz will also be appointed to serve on the company's board of directors.

The company also announced that CEO Michael Carroll, president and CFO Michael Pappagallo, and chief accounting officer Steven Splain, along with an accounting employee, have resigned, effective immediately. Carroll has also stepped down from the company's board of directors.

Some of the biggest names in e-commerce are part of a new investor index designed to track the performance of the online retail market.

San Diego-based EQM Indexes LLC, created the index (ticker symbol: IBUYXT) to track the combined performance of 40 to 50 global stocks that derive at least 70% of their revenue from online retail and virtual commerce including the online retail, online marketplace and online travel market segments. The companies that make up the index can be seen here.

A high single digit decline in retail traffic in November and early December caused retailers to cut orders of HanesBrands products, but not enough to keep the leading apparel suppliers from posting impressive profit growth and its third consecutive year of record sales.

HanesBrand’s fourth quarter sales woes highlight the weather related difficulties experienced by retailers, the negative effect on traffic and the subsequent margin pressure that was created as retailers had to intensify promotional activity to move merchandise.

JCPenney is pursuing a possible sale and partial leaseback of its headquarters building in Plano, Texas, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce debt and manage expenses.

The company announced Friday that a combination of favorable market conditions and a surplus of available square footage within the building make this an attractive real estate opportunity.

Sports Authority is taking steps towards filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Bloomberg.

The retailer has a debt payment due in 10 days and in talk with its lenders about a reorganization plan under which it would close as many as 200 of its more than 450 stores, the report said.
 
Sports Authority reportedly skipped a $20 million in interest payment in January on a $343 million loan. It has 10 days to make the payment.