International Business

Tyco Retail Solutions, a leading provider of retail performance and security solutions, is expanding its contract with the Inditex Group. The fashion retailer will now leverage Tyco’s RFID-based Inventory Intelligence chain-wide.

Tiffany’s long-standing CEO Michael J. Kowalski will retire from the company March 31, 2015. Kowalski, who has been a member of the company’s board of directors since 1995, will continue to serve as non-executive chairman.

The board has tapped Frederic Cumenal, currently the company’s president, as Kowalski’s successor; he will step up to the CEO role April 1, 2015.

Kowalski joined Tiffany in 1983, became CEO in 1999 and assumed the role of chairman of the board in 2003.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Stores opened 23 Ross Dress for Less stores and seven DD’s Discounts locations across 17 states in June and July. These new locations are part of the retailer's plans to add a total of approximately 75 Ross and 20 DD’s Discounts stores during 2014.

Ross believes that future growth opportunities include almost doubling its store count from its current 1,194 stores to 2,000 stores, and also growing DD’s Discounts from 144 stores to 500 stores.

Washington, D.C. - The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the standards and technology division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), has released the Compliance Audit Interchange. The CAI is a specification that allows organizations to share compliance audit results securely with other companies who source from the same supplier location.

PPG Industries, a leading coatings and specialty materials company, has elevated EVP Michael H. McGarry to chief operating officer, effective Aug. 1. He will remain based at PPG’s global headquarters in Pittsburgh and continue to report to chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch.

McGarry will have executive oversight responsibility for all of PPG’s strategic business units and operating regions and for the information technology (IT), environment, health and safety (EH&S) and purchasing functions.

San Francisco - DHgate.com, an e-commerce marketplace focused on cross-border trade of Chinese goods, has hired several new executives. These include COO Noah Herschmann, who previously held management roles at Amazon, Groupon, Asia, Staples China and Tweeter.

Electrolux president and CEO Keith McLoughlin reflected on the company's progress during the second fiscal quarter, pointing to prospects for growth.

However, net sales decreased by about 4.9% year-over-year, totaling $26.3 billion for the three-month period. That decrease was slightly smaller for the six-month period — 2%.

Meanwhile, the company posted a net loss of $92 million for the quarter. For the first six months, the company's net income of $339 million compares to net income of $1.003 billion for the same six-month period last year.

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma announced the hiring of Ronald R. Young as senior VP global. Young will grow the portfolio of Williams-Sonoma brands outside the United States.