Marketing

Veteran Walmart store planner Jay Mitchael is a featured speaker at an upcoming event organized by Doing Business in Bentonville.

Mitchael, vp of store layout and space productivity at Walmart, is scheduled to speak Thursday, Nov. 13 at the Doing Business in Bentonville event which runs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. in Rogers, Ark. Among the topics the organization said he will address are changes in store design, current prototype rollout and something called the space capture project.

New York -– Non-recurring items, including charges relating to stock issuance and tax valuation, helped swing Elizabeth Arden Inc. to a net loss of $25.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to net income of $1.59 million in the same period a year earlier. Declining North American fragrance sales helped reduce net sales 21% to $270.38 million from $343.6 million.  

The Bill Blass brand is in for a breath of fresh air with the arrival of celebrated designer Chris Benz as new creative director.

Reporting directly to Stuart Goldblatt,  Bill Blass’ newly appointed president and CEO,  Benz will be responsible for the overall creative direction of the company.

Benz brings to Bill Blass years of experience in the fashion industry, including designing for Mark Jacobs and J.Crew, as well as his own collection CHRIS BENZ, launched in 2007.

Seattle –- Starbucks Corp. topped off a generally successful fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 by swinging to net income of $587.9 million from net loss of $1.23 billion the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. The removal of a one-time arbitration charge of $2.8 billion helped bring Starbucks into the black.  

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe's Companies Inc. has named 3M, Stainmaster and Truper as the company's 2014 Vendor Partners of the Year. The companies were selected for their commitment to product quality, innovation and customer service.   

Bentonville, Ark. –- Wal-Mart is reportedly testing a price-matching program it may use for the upcoming holiday season. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart is currently piloting price-matching with local competitors in brick-and-mortar stores but may expand the program nationally and include online competitors like Amazon.com.  

Bridgestone Americas announced that TJ Higgins has been named president of the consumer U.S. and Canada divisions for the company's tire operations, effective Nov. 3. Higgins succeeds Gordon Knapp, who became COO of Bridgestone Americas in March. 

Higgins brings more than 20 years of consumer products marketing and strategic business experience to Bridgestone. He most recently served as the North America regional president for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and also held leadership roles at Merck and Vlasic throughout his career. 

Hingham, Mass.-- Talbots Inc. will license APT’s software, including its Test & Learn and Market Basket Analyzer platforms, to test and analyze key business initiatives including promotions, merchandising, marketing and store operations. Talbots will use APT’s Test & Learn approach to identify which actions are most successful in improving performance and measure their impact on a test versus control basis.