Mergers & Acquisitions

Ahold USA first quarter sales were up 4% to $8.2 billion. Excluding gas, sales increased 4.1% at constant exchange rates. The addition of 25 A&P stores in the New York Metro market in fourth quarter 2015 was the main contributor to the overall sales growth and resulted in an overall market share improvement in both dollars and volume, Ahold reported.

It’s been a long time, but Rite Aid Corp. is opening a new distribution center.

Located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the facility is the company’s first new distribution center in 16 years. Rite Aid is currently awaiting regulatory approval for a proposed $17.2 billion merger with Walgreens Boots Alliance.

The e-commerce landscape just shifted with the announcement Salesforce will purchase Demandware for $2.8 billion.
 
Demandware’s recently enhanced flagship Commerce Cloud platform is one of the leading e-commerce solutions on the market. Notable retail Demandware users include Lands’ End, Marks & Spencer, Urban Decay, and True Religion. According to figures released by IHL in December 2015, Demandware is the number two retail SaaS company by installed revenue, trailing only Microsoft.
 

The long-drawn out battle over the merger of Staples and Office Depot has claimed its first victim.

Staples chairman and CEO Ron Sargent will step down after the chain’s annual shareholders meeting on June 14. His exit comes just weeks after a federal judge struck down Staples’ proposed acquisition of rival Office Depot. http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/staples-and-office-depot-call-merger-wake-ruling%3Cbr />  

Five Below is expanding at a fast clip this year.

The extreme-value brand for pre-teens and teens will open its first store in Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City, on June 3, 2016.  

A second store Oklahoma, in Edmond, will open on June 24, 2016.

The Philadelphia-based chain is one of the fastest growing retailers in the country. It plans to open approximately 85 new stores in 2016, up from 71 stores in 2015.
 

Office Depot Inc. is regrouping less than a month after a federal judge blocked the chain’s planned acquisition by rival Staples Inc., causing the two companies to abandon the deal.
 
On Tuesday, Office Depot announced its board had approved a $100 million stock buyback program. The retailer also said it is finalizing its comprehensive strategic review, which includes capital structure and return of capital alternatives.
 

Sports Authority’s remaining 320 store leases will be auctioned in June.  

Saks Fifth Avenue plans to shutter its 107,000-sq.-ft. store at The Mall at Short Hills, in Short Hills, New Jersey, amid plans to open a flagship in a huge retail and entertainment center in the state.
     
As previously announced, the upscale retailer plans to open a store at the under-construction, three-million-sq.-ft. American Dream Meadowlands mega-center, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Feeling the heat from an activist inventory, Chico's FAS Inc. will increase its cost-cutting efforts on the heels of a disappointing first quarter.
    
The women’s apparel retailer reported a profit of $31.1 million, or 23 cents a share, for the quarter ended April 30, down from $32.5 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring-related charges and other items, adjusted per-share earnings fell to 25 cents from 30 cents.

The nation’s top two extreme-value discounters aren’t feeling the retail malaise that affected department stores and many specialty retailers in the first quarter.