Labor & Employment

There is an increasing difficulty in maintaining a skilled technical workforce. As the current workforce ages, technical experts are harder to find and concerns arise around workforce costs.

With the retail industry continuing to face abundant legislative challenges, the Retail Industry Leaders Association has made two key hires to bolster lobbying efforts during what promises to be a year of highly contentious presidential politics.

New Hyde Park, N.Y. -- Kimco Realty Corp. announced that Conor C. Flynn, president and CEO, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors effective January 1, 2016, simultaneous with his elevation to the CEO role. Flynn succeeds David B. Henry who retired as vice chairman of the board of directors and CEO on January 1, 2016.

How will retailers fare in 2016? Very well, according to experienced market watchers.

“We expect core retail sales to grow 5.3% in 2016,” says Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics, a research firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. (Core retail sales exclude volatile revenues from auto sales and gas stations.) That is notably faster than the 4.2% rate anticipated when 2015 sales are finally tallied. The 2015 experience was, again, slightly better than the 3.9% growth of 2014.

In 2016, retail chains will continue to face increasing competition and high consumer expectations. Changing regulations will also impact retail businesses. We see the regulatory issues below as the most critical for the retail industry this year and beyond.

Philadelphia -- PREIT announced that Ron Rubin will step down as the company's executive chairman, a role he's held since 2012, effective June 7, 2016. Rubin will continue in his role as chairman of the board.

Rebecca Flick has joined Hancock Fabrics, a struggling operator of 260 stores, as CFO after spending 14 years early in her finance career with the Home Depot.

Flick was named CFO effective Jan. 4, to fill a position that had been held on an interim basis since August 2015 by O. Pierce Crockett, Hankcock’s divisional VP and controller. Crockett stepped in to lead the finance group after James Brown resigned as CFO after holding the post for less than two years.

Following a contentious exchange with a large shareholder in 2015, Children’s Place is changing a key provision of its bylaws that allows investors to nominate directors and allowing a vote on several other measures shareholders identified as concerns.