International Business

Destination Maternity Corp. has turned down an offer from a French company that disclosed a 13.1% stake in the U.S. company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.

The nation’s largest retailer of maternity apparel rejected an offer from children’s clothing company Orchestra-Premaman, which manufactures clothing for children and infants, saying the request for talks regarding a potential acquisition were not in the best interests of Destination Maternity shareholders.

Callison and RTKL have officially joined forces as CallisonRTKL.

The firm announced several senior-level appointments to launch its next level of growth:

Eric Lagerberg (New York) has been named executive VP and will serve as global practice group leader for retail stores and regional director of North America for CallisonRTKL.

The Ascena Retail Group is adding a seasoned retail CEO and a legal expert to its board of directors.

The parent company of Ann Taylor Loft, Ann and other banners announced three changes to its board of directors on Friday. Board member Klaus Eppler is retiring and Carl (“Chuck”) Rubin and Steven L. Kirshenbaum are joining the board.

Weak traffic at Saks 5th Avenue stores did not keep Hudson's Bay Company from reporting higher sales and profit in the third quarter.

For the third quarter ended Oct. 31, the company posted a profit of $1 million, compared with a $13 million loss a year earlier. Total sales increased 34% to $2.57 billion, up from $1.91 billion. Consolidated sales growth was 34.1%, up $653 million from prior year with same-store sales growth of 12.9%. But Saks Fifth Avenue logged a same store sales decrease of 3.6%.

Virginia, Beach, Va. -- Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust announced it has appointed John McAuliffe to the company's board of directors, effective Dec. 2. McAuliffe returns to the company's board of directors after having previously served from November 2012 until April 2013. McAuliffe has over 36 years' experience in the financial services industry. In April 2013, he resigned from the company's board of directors to focus his efforts on investment banking with Newbridge Securities Corporation.

Don’t be fooled by Costco’s tepid sales growth and first quarter profit decline. The company is accelerating expansion and pursuing some intriguing digital partnerships while members continue to renew at record rates.

While same-store sales at Dollar General and Dollar Tree have decelerated of late, that is not the case with Canada’s largest dollar store operator which recently opened its 1,000th location.

Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of The North Face and an ardent conservationist and outdoorsman, died following a kayaking accident in his adopted country of Chile. Tomkins, 72, was the co-founder of two clothing companies that would grow into multi-billion dollar enterprises. In addition to North Face, he was a co-founder, along with his wife at the time, of Esprit. “He flew airplanes, he climbed to the top of mountains all over the world,” his daughter Summer Tompkins Walker told the New York Times.