Marketing

A tepid economic climate and government shutdown weren’t enough to prevent Macy’s from producing a 3.5% third quarter same store sale increase and better than expected profits which prompted the department store operator to reiterate it full year financial forecast.

Pinnacle Foods reported a 1% increase in consolidated net sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 29 compared to the year-ago quarter, bolstered by the company’s North America retail business, which is made up of the Birds Eye Frozen and Duncan Hines Grocery segments and which increased 2%.

O’Connor Capital Partners, a privately owned, independent real estate investment, development and management firm, has named Glenn J. Rufrano as chairman and CEO.

Rufrano was a founding partner of the O’Connor Group, the firm’s original incarnation, and has served on the board since 2010. He has also acquired a full partnership stake in the firm.  

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- Dollar General Corporation announced the resignations of Raj Agrawal and Adrian Jones as members of its board of directors effective Dec. 5. Agrawal, a member of KKR & Co. (LP), and Jones, a managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co., have served as directors of Dollar General since 2007.

True Religion Apparel has appointed Mary Alderete as the company’s chief marketing officer. Alderete, who will report to CEO David Conn, will be charged with shaping the marketing strategy for True Religion across the company’s retail, wholesale, international and e-commerce platforms.

Alvarez & Marsal, a global professional services firm specializing in turnaround and interim management, performance improvement and business advisory services, has hired Tom Phelps as a managing director. He will help retailers in the U.S. and worldwide improve business performance.  

Less than a week after Office Depot and Officemax consummated their merger, the combined companies have a new chairman and CEO in former Delhaize America CEO Roland Smith.

In conjunction with the appointment of Smith, who also previously served as CEO of Wendy’s, the two CEOs of Office Depot and OfficeMax who were serving as co-CEOs of the combined company both resigned. Neil Austrian served as CEO of Office Depot and Ravi Saligram served as CEO of OfficeMax prior to the merger.

Interactions, a company that organizes event marketing and product demonstrations for retailers and brands, has appointed Jerry Slater as VP of operations.

Slater will lead Elite Marketing Interactions, the company’s in-house group dedicated exclusively to Meijer, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer that operates 203 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. In his new role, Slater is responsible for overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations and will be based in the Grand Rapids office.