International Business

Minneapolis – John J. Mulligan, CFO and executive VP of Target, is publicly calling for U.S. businesses to adopt chip-enabled smartcards. In a column published in the Congressional blog of political site The Hill, Mulligan said the attack on Target exposed the sophistication of today’s hackers and that the retailer had already been striving toward adopting chip-enabled smartcards, used in most of the rest of the world, before the holiday 2013 data breach.

Los Angeles — PizzaRev will open its seventh location in Van Nuys, Calif., on Feb. 7. PizzaRev is a Los Angeles-based fast casual pizza chain that fires pizzas in just three minutes. Founded in 2012 by entertainment industry executives Irv Zuckerman and Rodney Eckerman.

PizzaRev announced a strategic partnership with Buffalo Wild Wings last March, and Buffalo Wild Wings will open the first PizzaRev franchise location in Sprung 2014 in Minneapolis.

As part of its 2014 expansion plans, teen and tween retailer Five Below has its eye set on the Tennessee market and will be opening five new stores there by spring.

Ball Corporation has named Daniel W. Fisher as president, North American metal beverage packaging division, Americas, succeeding Michael Hranicka, who recently left the company.

Fisher joined Ball in 2010 as VP, finance, North America, Ball metal beverage packaging division, Americas, and most recently held the position of SVP, finance and planning for that same business. Fisher reports to Gerrit Heske, Ball's SVP and chief operating officer, global beverage metal packaging.

Mumbai – The Indian state of Rajasthan has reportedly prohibited direct foreign investment in supermarkets located there. According to Reuters, individual Indian states are allowed to decide whether or not they want to accept direct foreign investment in local supermarkets, and so far fewer than half of India’s 28 states have done so.

San Diego – On Jan. 30, 2014, PriceSmart, Inc. acquired approximately 147,000 usable sq. ft. of land in the city of Medellin, Colombia, and leased approximately 126,000 usable sq. ft. of land in the city of Bogota, Colombia, upon which the company plans to construct two new warehouse club stores. These two warehouse clubs are currently planned to open before the end of calendar year 2014.

Winston-Salem, N.C. - Dan Beem will be joining Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. as senior VP of the company and president international later in February 2014. Beem, 44, will report to president and CEO Jim Morgan, and will be responsible for the company's international franchise business segment.  

R.G. Barry Corporation’s chairman of the board Gordon B. Zacks died at his Bexley home following a brief illness. He was 80.

Zacks joined his family's business in 1955 after attending Dartmouth College and graduating from the Ohio State University. He joined the board of directors in 1959 and was named company president in 1965. He added the roles of chairman of the board and CEO to his resume in 1979. Following retirement from his day-to-day management roles in 2004, he was named the company's non-executive chairman of the board, a post held until his death.

L’Oréal Canada’s Javier San Juan has been appointed president of Latin America Hispanic Zone and president of L’Oréal Mexico.

Frank Kollmar will succeed San Juan as president of L'Oréal Canada. Kollmar was recently president of the Consumer Products Division in Canada. He began his career with L'Oréal Canada 15 years ago in the active cosmetics division. In 2003, he left to join the German subsidiary of the group, where he led an international career before returning to Canada in 2011.

Vera Bradley has restructured its executive team and promoted key figures, effective immediately.

"We have a lot of talent and experience within our company, and these promotions and realignments will help position us for the future. I am confident that we are in the process of assembling the right team to achieve our long-term goals, drawing from both our own leadership team and attracting new talent to the organization," said CEO Robert Wallstrom.