Labor & Employment

Twenty-year Johnson & Johnson former executive Rick LaBerge was named VP of sales at Mars Chocolate North America.

In his new role, LaBerge will lead the Mars Chocolate sales organization, overseeing the strategy and execution of retail management, customer account teams, field sales and customer development. He will serve as a member of the Mars senior management team and will play an active role in industry events, according to the company.

Advance Auto Parts announced plans to open its 4,000th store on Friday, one day after reporting disappointing sales at its 3,999 locations.

Total sales for the second quarter increased 6.1% to $1.55 billion due largely to the addition of 175 new locations. However, same store sales declined 0.3% on top of a prior year decline of 2.7%.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Meijer is preparing to hire thousands of new team members for its stores in response to company growth and in preparation for the fall and holiday selling seasons. While staffing needs vary from store to store, all Meijer stores have positions available. Broken down by state, Meijer plans 4,400 new hires in Michigan, 1,800 in Indiana, 1,600 in Ohio, 900 in Illinois and 500 in Kentucky.

In one of the stranger situations in retail right now, J.C. Penney is defending itself against charges by activist investor Bill Ackman that it’s not moving fast enough to hire a full time CEO and remedy a situation that Ackman created when the guy he picked nearly destroyed the company.

New York – Law firm Morgan & Morgan is investigating potential legal claims against the board of directors of Saks Inc. relating to the proposed acquisition of Saks by Hudson's Bay Company. Morgan & Morgan's investigation concerns whether Saks' board of directors breached its fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of Saks' shareholders and to take all necessary steps to ensure that Saks' shareholders receive the maximum value readily available for their shares of Saks common stock.

Minneapolis — Holiday Stationstores has reached an agreement with I-90 Fuel Services to convert 16 of The Gas Stop convenience stores to Holiday Stationstores, expanding the Holiday brand in the South Dakota and Southwestern Minnesota markets.

The Gas Stop stores making the conversion are located in Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Brandon, Mitchell, Mobridge, Pierre and Volga, South Dakota. The Minnesota stores are in Luverne and Worthington.

New York -- Jones Lang LaSalle has added another financing expert to its growing Capital Markets team in Dallas. Industry veteran Jeff Zickefoose joins has joined the firm as senior VP. He will work with Managing Director Randy Fleisher and the rest of the team to provide strategic services to clients throughout the region.

“Jeff brings nearly 20 years of financial experience and a long track record of originating debt on behalf of leading commercial mortgage debt providers,” said Fleisher.

Philadelphia - David Johnston, COO of Five Below, Inc., will leave his position at the company effective Aug. 31. In the wake of his departure, the company is seeking a president who will report directly to co-founder and CEO Thomas Vellios.