Labor & Employment

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is doubling the amount of its share buyback authorization from $5 billion to $10 billion. Under this authorization, through first quarter 2015, the company had invested a total of $3.7 billion to retire 56.9 million shares at an average price of $65.06 per share.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Jeff Owen will rejoin Dollar General Corp. as executive VP of store operations effective June 15. Owen previously spent more than 20 years with Dollar General, where his most recent role was senior VP of store operations.

Dollar General also announced that Greg Sparks, executive VP of store operations, has departed effective June 9, 2015.

Dollar General Corp. is looking to a longtime Dollar General employee to be its next executive vice president of store operations. 

The CFO of PetSmart Inc. has been appointed to the board of directors for Crocs Inc.

Carrie Teffner, the executive vice president and chief financial officer for PetSmart Inc., joined the board June 9.

Crocs also announced that current director Peter Jacobi is voluntarily retiring from his position.

Dodgeville, Wis. -- Lands' End announced the appointments of two retail veterans to its executive team which is led by newly appointed CEO Federica Marchionni.

Joseph Boitano, most recently group senior VP and general merchandise manager for Saks Fifth Avenue, has been named Lands’ End executive VP, chief merchandising and design officer.

New York -- Amazon.com is going big in Texas with the announcement that it will open its fourth fulfillment center in the state.

The new 500,000-sq.-ft., which is currently under construction, will be located at the northeast corner of Interstate 45 and Interstate 20 in Dallas and will bring about 500 new jobs to the area when the facility opens early in 2016. It will process smaller items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods.

Wesley Chapel, Fla. -- More than1.2 million shoplifters and dishonest employees were apprehended in 2014 by just 25 large retailers who recovered over $225 million from these thieves, according to the 27th Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm Jack L. Hayes International. The participants were made up 25 large retail companies with 23,250 stores and over $700 billion in retail sales (2014).

Washington, D.C. - Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports has returned to normal levels following ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

Toronto - Sears Canada Inc. has closed a transaction to sell and leaseback three properties to Concord Pacific Group of Companies. The transaction, originally announced on March 11, 2015, has closed for total proceeds of $140 million.

Burlington, N.J. – Aided by reductions in areas such as interest expense, debt extinguishment and stock option modification, Burlington Stores Inc. more than doubled its net income to $25.69 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 from $11.77 million the same period a year earlier. The company plans to open 25 stores during fiscal 2015.