International Business

Three executives were named to new roles at leading appliance and consumer electronics manufacturer Haier America.

Haier America, part of the $29 billion Haier Group, named Gina Copeland SVP of air quality, Sanjay Gupta VP of product platform development for major appliances and Paul Riley as VP of sales and marketing for major appliances.

RuMe, an earth friendly lifestyle brand, has appointed Farhan Yasin to its board of directors. Yasin joins RuMe's board to provide strategic guidance on the company's continued innovation and expansion within e-commerce, business operations and managing its rapid growth.

Sears Holdings has appointed former Tesco executive Alasdair James as president and chief member officer for the Kmart business.

In this role, James will be responsible for driving the Kmart format strategy, managing the Kmart P&L and aligning merchandise, marketing, pricing and selling with the needs and wants of Shop Your Way members.

New York - Following a strong economic pick-up in fourth quarter 2013, values for both imports and exports fell during first quarter 2014, compared to the previous quarter. According to a new report from supply chain research firm Panjiva, imports dropped 5.42% and exports 3.84% from fourth quarter 2013, though activity in March fared better than in January and February.
 
Some of the report highlights include:

Los Angeles – American Apparel has relocated its Aix-en-Provence store in France. Set in a former private hotel, the new location features an open, single floor layout and flower garden.

The shop maintains much of the building's early architecture including stone walls, a fireplace (transformed into a shoe display) and double front doors depicting the city's emblem of two lion faces. With history dating back to the 16th century, it marks the company's oldest interior in Europe.    

New York -- Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s founder, Dennis "Chip" Wilson, reached an agreement to sell half his stake in the women's yoga-wear company to Advent International of Boston for $845 million. The deal will give Advent, which owned shares of Lululemon from 2005 to 2009 and was one of the company's early venture capital backers, 20.1 million shares, or 13.9% of the company (Lululemon went public in 2009). It also gives Advent two seats on the board, including Advent's managing partner David Mussafer, who will become co-chairman of the retailer.

Trace One, which provides solutions to branded and private-label goods companies, has added Chris Morrison as its chief marketing officer.
 
In his new position, Morrison will oversee the company’s global communications, product strategies and marketing. He’ll be a part of the rollout of new Trace One solutions and assist in expanding the company’s global reach.
 

A massive new Academy Sports and Outdoors distribution center in Tennessee is expected to fuel the retailer’s growth for years to come when the 1.6 million-sq.-ft. facility opens in 2016.

Brussels, Belgium – Delhaize Group, parent company of U.S. supermarket chains including Food Lion and Hannaford Bros., swung to a net loss of $60.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to net income of $140.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

Impairment charges in Delhaize’s Serbian business and loss of market share in its home Belgium market contributed to the retailer’s poor profit performance. Revenue rose 0.5% to $7.04 billion, from $7.01 billion. U.S. same-store sales rose 3.3%.

Big name CPG companies Procter & Gamble and Kraft struggled to show growth with their recent quarterly results, but that wasn’t the case at White Wave Foods.