Mergers & Acquisitions

Hudson’s Bay Company has named Donald Watros, currently the company’s COO, as president of HBC, a newly expanded role. The appointment is effective Feb. 1, 2014.

The move comes as the company restructures its leadership so it can focus on managing and growing HBC’s presence in North America, as well as its expanding portfolio of brands.

Largo, Fla. – Valpak has signed a franchise agreement with Lia Jensen to acquire the Valpak of West Michigan territory. The market was previously owned and operated by Valpak corporate.

Jensen, a first-time franchisee, has assumed The Blue Envelope distribution and began mailing out to residents and businesses in Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan Counties in October.

Paris -- French retailing giant Carrefour has joined an investment group aiming to acquire more than a 100 shopping malls in France, Spain, and Italy.

According to a New York Times report, the $2.7 billion deal will add 127 malls to Carrefour’s current 45-mall portfolio. The plan is to create a new, separate property company in which Carrefour would hold a 42% stake. Institutional investors would hold the rest.

Retailers were well represented on the 2013 edition of a best and worst CEOs list compiled by a business professor at a leading university.

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos topped the list of best CEOs, compiled by Sydney Finkelstein, associate dean for executive education and the Steven Roth professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Making the list of worst CEOs were former J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson and current Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert.

Algonquin, Ill. — Fuddruckers has opened a 6,600-sq.-ft. fast casual restaurant in the Algonquin Commons lifestyle center in Algonquin, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. The new restaurant replaces a Cheeseburger in Paradise, according to Luby’s, Inc., the parent company of both brands and the owner of the site.

The Algonquin Commons restaurant will showcase Fuddruckers’ new interior scheme, which pays homage to the chains roadhouse look, while refreshing the look to cater to today’s more sophisticated tastes.

New York -- Whole Foods Market has inked a deal for a new location in the Bryant Park area of Manhattan – on Sixth Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets.

A Wall Street Journal report, which cited unnamed sources, said that the grocer has agreed to take 10,000 sq. ft. on the ground floor and 22,000 sq. ft. on the second floor at 1095 Sixth Ave., a building owned by a Blackstone Group fund.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart India is laying off roughly 100-150 senior to mid-level employees. The Financial Press quotes anonymous executives as saying Wal-Mart India, which currently employs about 1,100 workers, beefed up staffing in anticipation of an expansion that has now been put on hold.

Wal-Mart runs 20 wholesale stores in India. The retailer previously ran them in a joint venture with Indian company Bharti Enterprises, but since that partnership was dissolved in October 2013 Wal-Mart India has been taking on Bharti employees.