Labor & Employment

Washington, D.C. — Import volume at major U.S. container ports is expected to increase 7.5% in June as retailers bring unusually high quantities of merchandise into the country early to avoid any potential disruptions after the labor contract with West Coast dockworkers expires. According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates, in June U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker are expected to handle 1.46 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU), up 7.5% year-over-year.

Spanx has named Jan Singer as CEO, reporting to founder and owner of the company, Sara Blakely.

Interim CEO Gregg Ribatt will assist Singer through a transition period, and then continue to serve on the company’s board of advisers. Singer is expected to join the company officially in early July.

No company hired more veterans last year than Walmart, but that distinction was only enough to earn the company the 23rd spot on Military Times annual ranking of the best companies for veterans.
 

The J. M. Smucker Company has elevated John Denman to VP of human resource operations, effective July 16, and has also elevated Jill Penrose to VP of human resources, effective July 1.

Denman currently serves as VP, controller and chief accounting officer, and has been with the company for more than 30 years in various leadership positions in accounting and finance.

San Jose, Calif. -- Hispanic supermarket chain Mi Pueblo Foods announced its formal emergence from Chapter 11 reorganization after having completed a necessary financial restructuring. The company also announced that Javier Ramirez has been named president and CEO. He will succeed Mi Pueblo founder Juvenal Chavez, who will be named chairman of the board.
 
Ramirez is a seasoned CEO in the Hispanic food and grocery sector.
   

SGK, formerly marketed as Schawk, a leading global brand development, activation and deployment company that drives brand performance, has appointed Andrew Flynn as SVP of brand strategy.

In this new role, Flynn will focus on identifying and developing strategic brand solutions for clients to help drive brand performance by leveraging the services offered by Brandimage and Anthem, part of SGK's brand development group, and Schawk, the company's brand deployment business.

Green Bay, Wis. -- Shopko announced that veteran pharmacy executive Michael Cantrell has joined the company as senior VP, retail health. In this role, Cantrell will provide strategic direction for Shopko's pharmacy, optical and Rx e departments.  

Cantrell, a registered pharmacist and licensed attorney, is joining Shopko from Delhaize America, where he was VP of pharmacy. Prior to Delhaize America, Cantrell held various executive positions at AmerisourceBergen and Longs Drugs.

Kraft Foods Group has named George Zoghbi as vice chairman of operations, R&D, sales and strategy, a newly created position. He will report directly to CEO Tony Vernon.  

The company said that it created the new role to “bring together the expertise of several key areas under one leader, including research & development, which creates innovative new products and manages quality improvements, to the manufacturing and sales teams that make and ultimately deliver Kraft's products to customers.”