International Business

New York City -- Gap Inc. on Thursday opened its first store in Poland, in Warsaw’s Arkadia mall.

Gap and its Polish franchise partner, Ultimate Fashion, are planning to open more stores in Poland in 2012 and expand to other countries in the region.
 

The new year will see a changing of the guard in the chief executive’s office of several big retailers. Here are four to watch:

Costco
The torch has been passed at Costco Wholesale Corp., with president and COO Craig Jelinek stepping into the very big shoes of the company’s longtime chief executive and co-founder Jim Sinegal (effective January 1, 2012).

New York City -- Aeropostale announced that Arthur Rubinfeld, president - global development for Starbucks Coffee Co., has been appointed to the Aeropostale board of directors.

Rubinfeld helped build the foundation of Starbucks as senior VP real estate from 1992 to 2002, and returned to the company in his current position in 2008.
 

Westbrook, Maine -- Olympia Sports has opened its 200th store, in Dunkirk, Md., at Dunkirk Gateway Shopping Center.

The regional sporting goods chain has four more confirmed openings by yearend.

“We will continue to expand in our current footprint as well as throughout the Mid-Atlantic States. Our studies have shown a real opportunity for expansion throughout this new market, and we plan to aggressively pursue those opportunities,” said Ed Manganello, president.
 

AMSTERDAM — Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold reported sales of $9.3 billion and profits of $347.8 million in third quarter 2011, the company said.

Those figures represented a 2.5% increase in sales and a 15.2% increase in profits over third quarter 2010.

Amsterdam -- A Monday report by Bloomberg said that Royal Ahold NV will grow its online business, expand its store count in Belgium and add 150 convenience operations in an effort to ramp up sales.

The Dutch owner of Stop & Shop is also on a cost-cutting mission, saying it will reduce expense by $473 million over three years via supply chain improvements and a reduction in logistics and overhead expense.

LOS ANGELES — American Apparel announced that Tom Casey has resigned as acting president of the company. Casey was appointed in October 2010 to work with Dov Charney and key investors to validate the company’s strategy, improve operating disciplines and optimize the capital structure, the company reported.

Covington, La. -- Stirling Properties announced it has promoted Chris Abadie to VP and manager of the Commercial Brokerage Division after 11 years as a sales and leasing executive with the company.

In his new role, Abadie will oversee all aspects of commercial operations throughout each of Stirling Properties brokerage offices located in Louisiana and Mississippi.