Mergers & Acquisitions

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar is urging its shareholders to support a buyout offer from rival discounter Dollar Tree with less than two weeks remaining before a vote on the pending deal.  Family Dollar shareholders are scheduled to vote Jan. 22. on whether to accept the Dollar Tree offer.

New York -- Vestis Retail Group, which operates Bob’s Stores, Eastern Mountain Sports and Sport Chalet, has selected Epicor Software Corp.’s SaaS solutions to power its expanding retail sporting goods apparel and equipment business.

Apparently closing all of your stores and firing all of your employees is among the actions a retailer can take when it is “exploring strategic alternatives.”

Body Central Inc., which announced early this month that it was $18 million in debt and exploring strategic alternatives, has shuttered all 265 of its stores and fired 2,500 employees.

Family Dollar is urging its shareholders to support a buyout offer from rival discounter Dollar Tree with less than two weeks remaining before a vote on the pending deal.

Family Dollar shareholders are scheduled to vote Jan. 22. on whether to accept the Dollar Tree offer.

Family Dollar has rejected numerous approaches from Dollar General, the latest worth $9.1 billion in cash, in favor of an $8.5 billion cash-and-stock offer from Dollar Tree. It has cited risks that the Dollar General deal would be blocked because of anti-monopoly rules.

The Fresh Market is heading into the new year with fresh leadership changes at the top.

The specielty grocery retailer announced that Craig Carlk, president and CEO, and a member of the board of directors, has left the company and has resigned as a member of the board.

The board has appointed Sean Crane, EVP and COO, as interim CEO while the company evaluates candidates to replace Carlock.

Los Angeles -- Fast-casual pizza franchise PizzaRev kicks off 2015 with the opening of the chain’s 20th location in just over two years. The new restaurant will open in La Habra, California, one of eight locations scheduled to open in first-quarter 2015. The upcoming expansion will include entrance into four new markets: Bakersfield, San Diego and Santa Barbara in California, as well as Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Mandeville, La. -- Stirling Properties announced the addition of Whole Foods Market to the tenant lineup at Premier Centre, a 273,000-sq.-ft. shopping center near the intersection of U.S. Highway 190 and North Causeway Boulevard in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Elmhurst, N.Y. --  Tom Rettaliata and Brian Schuster of Ripco Real Estate represented Darden Concepts and Ignite Restaurants in the lease of the site located between Queens Center Mall and the Long Island Expressway (I-495) in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. Olive Garden (8,297 sq. ft.), Longhorn Steakhouse (8,000 sq. ft.), and Joe’s Crab Shack (8,000 sq. ft.) now occupy a previously vacant location at the intersections of 92nd Street and 59th Avenue. All three restaurants face Queens Center.

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Merchant Resources will begin going-out-of-business sales at all 287 Deb Shops retail locations nationwide beginning Jan. 9. Deb Shops, a Philadelphia-based women’s fashion discount retailer, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Dec. 4, 2014.  

Austin, Texas - Following its recent acquisitions of retail vendors QuantiSense and ShopVisible, Epicor Software Corp. is releasing several new retail solutions. They include QuantiSense Retail Analytics, which provides a complete analytics package that delivers actionable insights to every area of the business and all key decision makers.