International Business

SECAUCUS, N.J. — The Children's Place Retail Stores is expanding its presence in the Middle East with franchise agreements to open stores in the Arab Gulf States of United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman as well as Saudi Arabia. The first stores are scheduled to open in the UAE in September 2012 in Dubai and Sharjah. The first two stores in Saudi Arabia are scheduled to open during the second quarter of 2012.

Secaucus, N.J. -- The Children’s Place announced that it has signed a 10-year franchise agreement with Apparel Group to open stores in the Arab Gulf States of United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. The first stores are scheduled to open in the UAE in September in Dubai and Sharjah.

Dallas -- 7-Eleven announced that it has completed a transaction to acquire 18 Open Pantry convenience store locations in Wisconsin, primarily in the greater Milwaukee and Madison markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

New York -- Microsoft Corp. will open its first retail location in Canada at the Yorkdale Mall, the Star reported.

Apple has 23 stores across Canada, including a location at Yorkdale.

The report cited building permit notices which revealed Microsoft has been approved to build a store in Yorkdale center.
 

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp.’s international executive VP James Murphy said Thursday that the warehouse club operator is pursuing a European expansion program.

Murphy told Bloomberg that Costco is “interested in investing in the obvious four -- Germany, Italy, France and Spain.” The company hasn’t decided which country would debut first and will probably open a store in the region “in the next couple of years,” Murphy said in the Bloomberg interview.

CINCINNATI — Marketing solutions provide Dunnhumby has hired Nishat Mehta, formerly of MicroStrategy, to lead the company’s growing global partner business. As EVP global partners, Mehta will be responsible for driving the global expansion and commercialization of Dunnhumby solutions, such as digital advertising, targeting and measurement, through strategic partnerships with data companies that deliver a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior across channels. He will be based in New York City.

Washington, D.C. — Former Microsoft executive, Tom Litchford, has been named The National Retail Federation's new VP retail technologies.

Effective July 2, Litchford will lead and manage NRF's Association for Retail Technology Standards and the exclusive, invite-only CIO Council. He will be responsible for developing and enhancing strategic programs, activities and relationships with retail and technology communities both domestically and internationally.

The timing of store openings in Mexico and Central America will be delayed by as much as 90 days due to what the company described as “process changes” that will increase the time required to open a store.

Wal-Mart de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. in an update to its expansion program disclosed to the Mexican Stock Exchange that it contemplated completing its 2012 expansion program 60 to 90 days later than originally planned. As a result new store openings for the current year will now range between 325 and 335 units.