Trading Partners

New York -- In an effort to expand its service capabilities, Lowe's has partnered with Porch.com, a home improvement network that connects homeowners with over 1.5 million professionals.

The partnership aims to connect customers with home improvement pros for nearly any project outside of what Lowe's currently offers as part of its installation services.

Los Angeles — PizzaRev has signed agreements with four franchisee groups covering territory in five states. The deals will lead to the opening of new units in San Diego and Orange counties in California plus Utah, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Here are brief profiles of each group:

Lifetime Brands, manufacturers of brands such as Farberware, KitchenAid and Guy Fieri, has acquired Thomas Plant (Birmingham) Limited.

Atlanta — Moe’s Southwest Grill has signed a deal to bring 18 new restaurants to Sacramento and Santa Cruz over the next seven years. This is the franchiser’s first push into California.

HKM II is the franchise group behind the California expansion. HKM II owns 42 quick-serve burger restaurants throughout Northern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.

Victory Electronic Cigarettes announced that Bill Fields, former president and CEO of Walmart stores division, will join its board of directors.  

San Antonio, Texas — The Retail Connection has brought retail development veteran David Berndt on board to extend the company’s tenant driven retail development capacity. Berndt will join as Development Partner of The Retail Connection | Connected Development Services. In that role, he will lead the company’s development platform in Central and South Texas.

The Retail Connection is expanding its capabilities across the board in Central and South Texas, adding senior brokerage leaders too.

Walmart CEO Bill Simon was among a group of six senior excutives added to the National Retail Federations board of directors.

Simon will be joined by Beall’s CEO Steve Knopik, J.C. Penney CEO Myron Ullman, Tractor Supply CEO Greg Sandfort, SAP SVP Lori Mitchell-Kell and Utah Retail Merchants Association president Dave Davis.

The retailers were elected to the board Sunday, the opening day of NRF’s 103rd Annual Convention and EXPO. They will serve three-year terms.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the retail industry has supposedly settled a federal lawsuit with Visa and MasterCard over credit card swipe fees.