International Business

New York -- The Denmark-based Lego group will open a Lego store in Atlanta on March 16.

The new store will be located in the Discover Mills outlet center. The space will feature such elements as a “Pick-A-Brick-Wall,” allowing shoppers to select and purchase specific individual Lego bricks in a variety of colors and shapes.
 

New York -- DSW Inc. has opened on 34th Street in Manhattan, in the heart of New York's fashion district. The retailer also announced plans to open a store on the Upper West Side in early summer 2012.

At over 33,000 sq. ft., the 34th Street location is the one of the largest in the DSW chain. It has three floors of selling space. The DSW store at 79th and Broadway will also be very large, measuring over 32,000 sq. ft.
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New York -- Belgian supermarket operator Delhaize Group said that its fourth quarter net profit dropped 48%, hurt by impairments resulting from its restructuring. It also announced that Mats Jansson will be the new chairman of the board, and that Pierre Bouchut will succeed Stefan Descheemaeker as CFO, effective March 19.

The company, whose U.S. holdings include the Food Lion, Hannaford Bros. and Sweetbay banners, said it will accelerate the revamp of its stores in the United States and Belgium to increase its competitiveness.

UTRECHT, Netherlands — Sara Lee Corp. has appointed Luc Volatier as SVP supply chain and operations of its international coffee and tea business effective April 1.  Volatier, 44, will be in charge of all procurement, supply chain and manufacturing operations. He will continue to serve in the same role once the international coffee and tea business is spun-off from Sara Lee Corp. in the first half of 2012.

Target has some ambitious growth plans for the next five years, and to help suppliers participate in that growth Retailing Today has partnered with the consulting firm Sales Is Not Simple to host a unique event on April 26 in downtown Minneapolis.

Incoming Target CFO John Mulligan and outgoing CFO Doug Scovanner participated in a Target sponsored meeting last Friday at the New York stock exchange. The event gave Wall Street analysts an opportunity to get to know Mulligan, and the consensus is the guy is a strong replacement for longtime CFO Scovanner whose tenure ends March 30.

DALLAS — Kimberly-Clark has elected Tony Palmer, SVP and chief marketing officer, to the role of president global brands and innovation.

In his expanded role, Palmer will leverage the company's scale to build brands and drive growth for its businesses around the world.  He will partner with K-C's regional business leaders to achieve their business objectives.

Target ranked 25th on Fortune’s listing of the 50 Most Admired Companies, which is the lowest level in the past six years. The decline could be viewed as troubling, but only if you buy into the notion that the list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations.

It is not, at least as far as retailers are concerned. In 2011 and 2010, Target was ranked 22nd, down from 2009 when it was ranked 19th and considerably below 2008 when it nearly broke into the top 10 with a ranking of 11th after a ranking of 13th in 2007.