International Business

New York -- Swedish fast-fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) plans to call its new retail brand “& other stories” according to various media reports.

New York -- Starbucks Coffee Co. is planning to a major push into smaller cities in China, with a target of 1,500 stores in more than 70 Chinese cities by 2015, Bloomberg reported.

China will become the chain’s second largest market outside the United States, the report said. Currently, Starbucks has about 500 outlets in China and operates in 48 cities.

Brentwood, Tenn. -- Hobby Lobby International has named its first female president, hobby industry veteran, Debra Love.

Love has been at Hobby Lobby since 2009 when she joined as VP IT and communications, and most recently served as executive VP.
 

Walmart chief merchandising officer Duncan Mac Naughton was back in Canada earlier this week at the CIBC World Markets Retail and Consumer Conference in Toronto sharing a message of improved traction and accelerating momentum.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. announced Thursday the location of its first 12 stores in Quebec. As previously announced, Target purchased the leasehold interests of 189 sites currently operated by Zellers Inc., and plans to open 125 to 135 stores in Canada, the majority of which will open in 2013.

Target said it intends to announce additional Quebec store locations in the coming months.

Target plans to open stores in the following locations in fall 2013:

Wal-Mart Stores is making strides across the Atlantic, as its Asda division is taking more of the grocery market share in the United Kingdom from rival Tesco.

According to a report from research firm Kantar Worldpanel, for the 12-week period ended March 18, Asda's share of the market grew to 17.9% on top of a year-over-year growth rate of 7.8%. By comparison, Tesco's growth rate of 2.7% lags behind the overall grocery market, which is growing at 4%.

Roanoke, Va. -- Advance Auto Parts has announced the promotion of Markus Hockenson to senior VP store operations, effective April 1.

Hockenson will be responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership to the company’s Midwestern operations, which includes more than 1,200 stores. Hockenson will report to Carl Hauch, senior VP national operations and will be based in Denver.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Fans of H&M will soon have a new place to shop as the Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB confirmed Thursday that it will open a new chain in 2013 that will build on the 2007 launch of its upscale Collection of Style (COS). No name for the new concept has been revealed yet.