Marketing

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HONG KONG — Esprit Holdings' chairman has unexpectedly resigned, just one day after the sudden departure of CEO Ronald van der Vis.

Chairman Hans-Joachim Korber said he is leaving for personal reasons, while van der Vis’s reasons were described as “personal and family.” CFO Chew Fook Aun left the company on June 1.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Dollar Tree shareholders have re-elected a number of board members among other initiatives passed at the company's annual meeting.

Shareholders re-elected Arnold S. Barron, Macon F. Brock, Jr., Mary Anne Citrino, J. Douglas Perry, Thomas A. Saunders III, Thomas E. Whiddon, and Carl P. Zeithaml to serve on the board of directors. Each of these Directors received a majority of the votes cast at the meeting.

“A government agency run amok,” is how National Retail Federal president and CEO Matt Shay this week described the actions of the National Labor Relations Board regarding the issue of micro-unions.

Philadelphia — Downtown Philadelphia will be the site for Walgreens' next Well Experience flagship store, according to an online report published Friday by CBS/Philly. The new Walgreens will be located at Broad and Chestnut Streets in Center City, filling the space of what was once a Borders bookstore.

The retail space extends 26,000 sq. ft. across three floors.

The CBS/Philly report suggested the new store will open its doors this fall, citing the real estate agent who brokered the deal.

With Target set to open its first stores in Canada in less than a year, one source of competition will come from the rapidly growing Dollarama chain.

The 721 unit Montreal-based Dollarama chain said its first quarter same-store sales increased by a weather-aided 8.1%, and total first quarter sales increase 14.9% to $398 million for the period ended April 29. Earnings per share increased 40% to 56 cents from 40 cents. The gross margin rate increased to 36.3% of sales from 35.7% and expenses declined to 18.5% of sales compared to 19.7%.

Neil Ringel was named EVP at Staples Advantage, the office products company announced Thursday.

Ringel previously served as SVP of the Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of the company focused on serving organizations with more than 20 employees. He joined Staples in 1995 and helped launched the Advantage group. He will replaced Jay Baitler who is retiring after 17 years of leading Staples Advantage. Ringel will report to Joe Dody who serves as president of Staples North American Delivery division.

CINCINNATI — Fuel sales at Kroger helped drive the company's total sales up 5.8% to $29.1 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 from $27.5 billion for the same period last year. Total sales, excluding fuel, increased 4.3% over the same period last year.

Identical supermarket sales, without fuel, increased 4.2% in the first quarter over the same period last year, marking the 34 consecutive quarters of positive identical supermarket sales for Kroger.

FORT WORTH, Texas — With Pier 1 delivering yet another quarter of comps and earnings growth, it's easy to forget that the retailer was once struggling just to make a profit. And much of the credit for Pier 1's turnaround lies with president and CEO Alex Smith. So, it is no surprise that the company has decided to offer Smith a three-year renewal and extension of his employment agreement.

Walmart in May continued its heightened level of advertising activity, hitting the market with an increased number of circulars that contained more pages. For a look at how Walmart’s promotional activity stacked up to other leading retailers, click here to see the last monthly data from Market Track.