International Business

Costco has extended its product offering to shoppers in mainland China by establishing a storefront on the Tmall e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group.

Plenty of retailers pay dividends, but none comes close to matching the track record of Stanley Black & Decker.

The company declared a 52 cent a share dividend for its fourth quarter and in so doing set a mark no retailer is likely to ever attain.

Duluth, Minn. –- Maurices is ramping up its store openings in time for the holiday season with plans to open 16 new stores. These expansions will give the girls’ apparel retailer a total of 938 locations, advancing it toward its goal of having more than 1,300 stores in the United States and Canada.   

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp. will enter China for the first time through the opening of an online flagship store on Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global platform. Tmall Global allows overseas brands and retailers to establish presence on the Alibaba third-party e-commerce platform Tmall.com without the need for physical operations in China.  

Kroger’s existing businesses are performing quite well so what better time to create a new senior executive role focused on new business development.

The nation’s largest supermarket operator said it named Procter & Gamble veteran Alex Tosolini to the newly created role of SVP of new business development reporting directly to CEO Rodney McMullen. Tosolini spent the past 24 years at P&G, most recently as SVP of global e-business and vp of global e-commerce.

Huntington Beach, Calif. -- Quiksilver announced that Bob McKnight will retire as a senior executive of the company on Oct. 31, 2014. He will remain a director. The teen retailer also said CEO Andy Mooney has been elected chairman and Pierre Agnes has been promoted to president of Quiksilver, effective Nov. 1, 2014.  

Online referral service provider Angie’s List plans to increase the size of its headquarters in Indianapolis and increase the workforce to 2,800 people within five years.

Angie’s List, a review drive enterprise that helps facilitate transactions between more than 2.8 million consumers and service providers in 720 categories, said it plans to grow its base of employees from 500 in 2011 to roughly 2,800 by 2019. The company said the expansion was enabled in part by an attractive incentive plan from the City of Indianapolis and State of Indiana.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -– Domino’s Pizza Inc. named Richard E. Allison, 47, president, Domino's International.   Allison has been with the company since 2011 and has led its international division since that time, succeeding Michael T. Lawton, current CFO, who ran the division prior to Allison. Prior to Domino's, Allison spent more than 13 years at Bain & Company, where he was a partner and co-leader of the firm's restaurant practice.