Marketing

Atlanta - S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman emeritus of Chick-fil-A Inc., died at the age of 93 on Sept. 8.

Cathy got his start in 1946, when he opened a diner in a suburb of Atlanta. He invented the Chick-fil-A sandwich in 1964 and opened the company's first restaurant in Atlanta in 1967. Under his leadership, the quick-serve eatery grew into one of the nation’s largest family-owned companies, with annual sales of $5 billion in 2013. Currently, there are more than 1,800 Chick-fil-A restaurants operating in 40 states and Washington, D.C.

Woonsocket, R.I. - CVS Health has completed the purchase of Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacy, the largest Hispanic-owned drugstore chain in the U.S. The acquisition includes Navarro's 33 retail drugstore locations and Navarro Health Services, a specialty pharmacy serving patients with complex or chronic diseases.

The retail drugstores will retain the Navarro Discount Pharmacy name.

Las Vegas - Cricket Wireless and GameStop Corp. are launching a new strategic retail relationship that will offer Cricket Wireless' no-annual contract service in more than 2,800 GameStop U.S. store locations. Starting in October after a successful trial in select markets, GameStop will begin selling Cricket Wireless no-annual contract service and smartphone devices and accessories.  

West Berlin, N.J. - E Z Pantry Inc. is expanding its grocery shopping and delivery service to senior citizens and the disabled community. With this grocery delivery service, customers in the South Jersey area including Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester counties can call in their orders and have their food delivered the next day.

New York – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that media reports indicate could be worth as much as $24.3 billion, making it the biggest U.S. initial public offering ever.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba is seeking a valuation as high as $162.7 million, in the upper end of the proposed price range and higher than that of any other public Internet company in the U.S. except Google and Facebook.

Welch's has appointed Mari Rodriguez as the VP of R&D/corporate quality. Most recently, Rodriguez was the senior director of beverage R&D with Campbell’s, where she developed and helped launch numerous V-8 products.

“Welch’s is the leader in Concord grape research and product development,” said Rodriguez. “I’m thrilled to be joining their team of grape experts to help further expand the brand’s portfolio of delicious products and bring the benefits of the Concord grape to more families.”

Walgreens has appointed Barry Rosenstein, managing partner JANA Partners, and a second new director to be named to its board of directors as the company continues moving forward to complete its merger with Alliance Boots.
 

Electrolux has entered into an agreement to acquire the appliances business of General Electric, one of the leading manufacturers of kitchen and laundry products in the United States, for a cash consideration of $3.3 billion.

In a few weeks, retailers across the country will set out to begin to interview, hire and train workers for very busy holiday season. There is nothing new about these hiring trends. What is new is that we can translate and apply military methods to train, integrate and improve workers effectiveness for a more successful retail season.
 

The increasingly competitive yoga apparel category just got a little more crowded. Sports Authority has launched an exclusive yoga line called Bloom, which it says it created specifically for women who enjoy being connected to the outdoors.