Marketing

North Plainfield, N.J. — David Reiner has joined retail real estate services firm Levin Management as VP of leasing. Most recently, Reiner served as director of real estate for Body Central Stores Inc.

During the past 25 years, he has also has held executive- and management-level retail leasing positions with property owners such as Urban Retail Properties, Colonial Properties Trust, and Simon Property Group.
 

Dodgeville, Wis. — Net income at Lands’ End Inc. grew 5% to $11.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 from $11.3 million in the same period a year earlier. Net sales also increased 5%, to $347.2 million from $329.6 million.

Same-store sales improved 2.8%. Lands’ End attributed its positive performance to improved merchandise assortment, modern creative presentation, better inventory management and continued expense controls.

California's drought disrupted 99 Cents Only Stores’ ability to continually stock “right-priced” produce, which affected the company’s overall financial results for the second quarter. But despite the challenges, same-store sales in the quarter were positive.

The company's net sales for the quarter increased $25.1 million to $458.2 million, compared to $433.1 million in the prior-year quarter. Same-store sales increased 0.1%, calculated on a comparable 13-week period of the prior year.

Westwood Village, Calif. — Urban Outfitters has opened side-by-side men’s and women’s stores in Westwood Village, Calif. With a 16,556 sq. ft. storefront, the stores are located in two adjacent historic buildings on Westwood Blvd.

Nicholas Ahrens will join the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) as VP of privacy and cyber security. Joining the association from the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ahrens will lead RILA’s privacy and data security agenda and serve as the lead advocate to the government on cyber security, privacy, data security and related issues.

North Bergen, N.J. - Tony Truesdale, who has served as CEO of Vitamin Shoppe Inc. since 2006, has announced his intent to retire on June 27, 2015 to spend more time with his family and his external board work. The board of directors of the Vitamin Shoppe will be commencing a search for a new CEO, which will include both internal and external candidates, who will then implement the next stages of the company's long-term growth plans.

Cincinnati – The Kroger Co. beat Wall Street expectations with strong net earnings and sales results for the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Net earnings rose 9% to $347 million from $317 million, while total sales increased 12% to $25.3 billion compared to $22.7 billion for the same period in the prior year.

Phoenix — Vestar, a privately-held real estate company in the western U.S. that acquires and manages retail and entertainment destinations, has named Jenny Cushing as assistant VP of leasing. Cushing will be responsible for overseeing and growing the leasing efforts throughout Vestar’s California, Arizona & Nevada projects.