Marketing

The nation’s largest retailer of swimming pool supplies and equipment continued its march toward 1,000 units this month with five new locations in Florida and a new prototype near its Phoenix headquarters.

The privately held Leslie’s Poolmart chain opened four locations in Jacksonville and one in nearby St. Augustine, bringing its store count in Florida to 90 locations, or 10% of the company’s total store base of roughly 900 locations.

Minneapolis – Christopher & Banks Corp. on Tuesday swung to a profit of $32.2 million for the fourth quarter, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

Net sales totaled $98.0 million, as compared to $104.9 million for the year-ago period. During the quarter, the company operated an average of 7.0% fewer stores than during the comparable period last year, reflecting its store conversion program.

The retailer posted revenue of $98 million in the period.

Canton, Mass. - Jack Clare, 44, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief information and strategy officer (CISO) of Dunkin’ Brands. Clare, who has served as the company's CIO for the past three years, will be a member of the Dunkin' Brands leadership team and will continue to report to Paul Carbone, CFO.

Clare will continue to oversee Dunkin' Brands' global information technology resources, and additionally, will now focus on developing the strategies that will drive the company's future success.

Bellport, N.Y. – Perfumania Holdings is launching a new digital corporate platform. Conceived and built by Ready Set Rocket, the new Perfumania digital corporate presence includes a fully redesigned corporate website.

In addition, Ready Set Rocket set forth a digital strategy for the new Perfumania Holdings digital corporate identity focused on the following core elements:

Swedish retailer H&M, which has already made huge waves in the United States, is now eyeing even more global omnichannel expansion.

The company is planning to open 400 new physical stores, a new flagship in New York City’s Herald Square, and at least nine new online stores.

The retailer also reported results for the first quarter ended Feb. 28. H&M reported that net profit climbed 36% to 3.61 billion kronor ($423.2 million), versus a year-ago profit of 2.65 billion kronor ($311.9 million). Analysts were expecting a profit of 3.37 billion kronor.

Dublin, Calif. – The Ross Stores Inc. board of directors has approved a two-for-one stock split on June 11, 2015. The split will be paid in the form of a 100% stock dividend to stockholders of record as of April 22, 2015.

Off-price retailer Ross Stores feels so good about its sales performance and outlook that it has approved a 2-for-1 stock split scheduled for June.

The company said the split will be paid in the form of a 100% stock dividend to stockholders of record as of April 22. 

Ross Stores had fiscal 2014 revenue of $11 billion. 

New York -- Global Visual Group (GVG) has appointed 30-year retailing veteran Tony Mancini as CEO. Mancini has held significant senior executive leadership positions, including  Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Mirage Design Group and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts/Walt Disney Imagineering, leading its global capital development portfolios worldwide.