Marketing

The seventh annual Best Companies for Leadership Study conducted by the global consulting firm the Hay Group ranked Walmart eighth.

Walmart’s eighth  place ranking on the top 20 list is one notch better than the prior year, but slightly below the company’s 6th place ranking in 2009 when it made the list for the first time.

After the pounding Walmart and its president and CEO Mike Duke have taken in recent weeks in the media over the alleged Mexican bribery and cover up scandal detailed by the New York Times, the company and its leader received some good news this week from the Network of Executive Women.

Cindy Davis, Walmart’s EVP global customer insights and analytics, is set to headline the second annual SHOP conference next week presented by MARS Advertising and the Center for Retailing Excellence in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

JCPenney on Thursday named Ken Hannah as its new CFO in the latest of a series of senior level personnel moves designed to aid in the company’s transformation.

Westlake Village, Calif. -- Academy Sports + Outdoors ranks highest in customer satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Sporting Goods Retailer Satisfaction Report. The inaugural report measures the overall sporting goods retailer customer satisfaction experience by examining five key factors: staff, cost, facility, merchandise and sales/promotions.

Charlotte, N.C. -- Harris Teeter Supermarkets reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended April 1 edged up to $30.3 million, from $29.9 million in the year-ago period.

Sales climbed 6.7% in the period, to $1.12 billion from $1.05 billion. Same-store sales increased 3.9%.

Austin, Texas -- In what it called the best quarter in its 32-year history, Whole Foods Market’s second-quarter profit jumped nearly 31% on stronger sales. The company raised its full-year outlook on the results.

“Our exceptional results in the first half of the year have given us the confidence to significantly raise our guidance for the full year. We are confident that our sales momentum and operating disciplines will create continued positive results for our shareholders," Walter Robb, co-CEO said in a statement.

New York -- Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, Barry Judge, has resigned. His resignation follows the departure last month of chief executive Brian Dunn.

Judge is “leaving the company to explore the next chapter in his career,” Greg Hitt, a spokesman for Best Buy, said by e-mail, in a Bloomberg report.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop posted a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter. The retailer reported a net loss of $1.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, down from a loss of $2.3 million last year.

Consolidated net retail sales of $95.2 million represented a 1.6% increase compared to $94.2 million. Revenue came in at $96.4 million, missing the $97.6 million analysts had expected. Same-store sales in the quarter rose 3.6% in North America. Overall same-store sales rose 1.2%.

Columbus, Ohio -- Limited Brands announced that Charlie McGuigan, CEO of Mast Global, the company's sourcing and production arm, has been named Limited Brands COO. In addition to retaining his current responsibilities, he will assume leadership of enterprise operations.

Martyn Redgrave, Limited Brands chief administrative officer, will transition to the role of senior advisor for the company later this summer.