Strategy

Corpus Christie, Texas -- Susser Holdings Corporation announced that its Striples LLL brand has Sid Keswani as senior VP store operations. Keswani brings to Stripes more than 18 years of retail operations experience with Target, most recently as senior VP for the Southeast region of the United States.

Stripes announced that company veteran Richard Sebastian has taken on the role of senior VP of facilities, construction and will be responsible for the company's maintenance, new store and capital expenditure programs.   

SAN ANTONIO — CST Brands, the parent company of Corner Store and Dépanneur du Coin, has appointed Denise Incandela, EVP and CMO at Saks Fifth Avenue, to its board. She becomes the tenth member of a board chaired by CST president and CEO Kim Bowers. 

At Saks, Incandela oversees Saks Direct and Saks Fifth Avenue’s marketing programs, including advertising, sales promotions, loyalty, digital marketing, social media, customer analytics and market research.

Online marketplace Rakuten Inc. has acquired Webgistix, a Las Vegas-based logistics and services company specializing in cloud-based fulfillment technology for e-commerce retailers. The acquisition is Rakuten’s second logistics investment outside of Japan and its first in the Americas. 

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s Inc. continues to expand East with plans to open its stores in the states of New York and Massachusetts.

The hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise retailer will open an 88,000-sq.-ft. store in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga, N.Y., in fall 2014, and a similarly sized one in the Boston suburb of Berlin, in spring 2015. The exteriors of both locations will reflect Cabela’s signature log construction, stonework, wood siding, metal roofing and a large glass storefront.

Chicago -- During a morning keynote session on Wednesday at the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago, former Vice President and self-described “recovering politician” Al Gore related a couple of interesting facts about how the Internet is shaping modern commerce. First, he stated that when an online network increases in size its value increases by a squared amount, so that for example a network that doubles its number of users quadruples in value.

Cincinnati -- Devin I. Murphy has joined Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. (www.phillipsedison-arc.com) as CFO, treasurer and secretary.

“With over 25 years of experience in the real estate investment industry, including executive leadership positions with Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Devin brings significant experience to the company,” said Jeffrey Edison, co-chairman of the board and CEO.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — On the heels of reporting net revenues of $123 million for the first quarter ended May 4 — an increase of 5% from $117.2 million in the first quarter of the year prior — Vera Bradley has announced that CEO Michael C. Ray plans to retire from the company.

Ray informed the company's board of directors that he will remain CEO through the transition period and intends to continue to serve as a director. The board has formed a search committee and retained Spencer Stuart to assist in the search for Ray's successor. 

NEW YORK — Golfsmith International plans to open its first specialty golf store on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. By positioning its interactive store in the heart of the Big Apple, Golfsmith will reach both New York area golfers as well as tourists visiting the city from around the world.

To mark the store opening, the golf retailer has scheduled a number of activities from Friday, June 7 through Sunday, June 9, including $50,000 in cash giveaways, golf clinics from instructor Hank Haney and more than $7,500 in prizes.