Labor & Employment

Ascena Retail Group began a search for a new CFO after its current EVP and CFO, Dirk Montgomery, resigned this week. As the company reviews potential new CFOs, Ascena board member and audit committee chair Randy Pearce, will have more involvement with the company’s finances.

Montgomery is expected to stay in his position until the fall, when he will move on to a Florida-based healthcare company, where he recently accepted an offer to be closer to his family.

Clothing company Kellwood has named Marc Babins the president of its western region. Babins — who has been in the apparel industry for most of his career — will head up Kellwood’s largest operations unit in City in Industry, California.

Dollar Tree said it would acquire Family Dollar in a transformational cash and stock deal valued at $8.5 billion to create a company with more than 13,000 stores and annual sales of $18 billion.

The deal was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and involves Dollar Tree paying Family Dollar shareholders $59.60 in cash and $14.90 in equivalent Dollar Tree shares.

The Home Depot elevated 14-year veteran Ted Decker to the role of EVP of merchandising to oversee all aspects of merchandising strategy and operations.

Decker had previously served as SVP of retail finance, pricing analytics and assortment planning. He assumes his new role August 4 and will report to Craig Menear, Home Depot’s president of U.S. retail.

London -- Natalie Berg, global research director at Planet Retail, commented:

“As a branding expert, Lewis’ first task will be to define Tesco. Philip Clarke himself has admitted that the brand has baggage. It doesn’t stand for value, yet it doesn’t stand for quality, and without a clear proposition we fear that Tesco will continue to lose customers to more relevant and better-defined channels.

Tewksbury, Mass. – Demoulas Super Markets Inc., parent company of the Market Basket grocery chain, has reportedly fired some employees in the wake of inventory problems during the weekend of July 19-20. According to the Boston Globe, several managers were fired the evening of Sunday, July 20 after the company noticed thinning inventories of perishable items.

Washington, D.C. - The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the standards and technology division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), has released the Compliance Audit Interchange. The CAI is a specification that allows organizations to share compliance audit results securely with other companies who source from the same supplier location.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot Inc. has named retail veteran Mark Cosby as president, North America. Cosby, 55, most recently served as president of pharmacy at CVS Caremark. He will be a member of Office Depot’s executive committee and leadership team and report to Roland Smith, chairman and CEO of Office Depot.

Cosby joins Office Depot following a 30-year career at a number of leading retail chains. Prior to CVS, Cosby spent five years at Macy’s Inc., where he served in a number of executive roles, including president, stores.

New York - Michael J. Kowalski, CEO of Tiffany and Co., will retire from the company effective March 31, 2015. Kowalski, who has been with Tiffany for 30 years and a member of the company’s board of directors since 1995, will continue to serve on the board in the role of non-executive chairman.

Tiffany has named Frederic Cumenal, currently the company’s president, to succeed Kowalski as CEO effective April 1, 2015. Kowalski, 62, joined Tiffany in 1983, became CEO in 1999 and assumed the role of chairman of the board in 2003.

Toronto - Loblaw Companies Ltd., owner of the Joe Fresh brand, has promoted Mario Grauso to president of Joe Fresh. He was previously COO of the brand.

In his new role, Grauso oversees business strategy, operations, marketing, international development, merchandising, sourcing and design functions at Joe Fresh.