Corporate Governance

L'Oreal USA appointed of Marc-Alexandre Risch to the newly created position of chief retail officer for L'Oreal USA.   The appointments comes as L’Oreal’s retail banners, which include Kiehl’s, are expanding. Risch will responsible for supporting the organization with retail operations leadership and knowledge, developing back-office retail operations solutions, systems and synergies across the company, and helping to establish seamless, omnichannel consumer experiences across L'Oreal USA's brand portfolio.

Quality Solutions, Colwich, Kansas, a leading provider of facilities maintenance and constructions services, has changed its name to QSI Facilities.    The company has also launched a new website and introduced a new approach for overcoming “value leakage” in outsourced facilities services.  

The Wendy's Co., which was first reported to have suffered a POS breach in January 2016, is still discovering evidence of hacking attacks.

The fast food chain announced that additional malicious cyber activity has recently been discovered in some franchise-operated restaurants. Wendy’s has disabled the malware where it has been detected.

Supervalu has moved closer to spinning off its discount grocery store division.
 
The supermarket operator filed Amendment No. 1 to its Form 10 Registration Statement with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the anticipated spin-off of its Save-A-Lot business into a separate, publicly traded company.

Retail real estate leaders and analysts discuss the retail landscape, trends in the industry, and projects to keep an eye on.

Watch the videos here.  
 

Specialty apparel retailer Christopher & Banks Corp. is not out of the red, but headed in the right direction during the first quarter of fiscal 2016.
 
The company reported net loss of $0.2 million, down from a net loss of $1.4 million the same quarter the previous fiscal year. Improved gross margin helped shrink the loss. Net sales totaled $100 million, an increase of 9%, compared to $91.6 million.

Francesca’s Holdings Corp. saw net income decline, but still beat Wall Street predictions, in the first quarter of fiscal 2016.
 
The specialty apparel retailer reported net income of $7/08 million, down 2% from $7.24 million the same quarter a year earlier. Higher selling, general and administrative (S,G&A) expenses offset improvements in gross profit.
 

Specialty home furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (RH) had what could be termed a messy start to the fiscal year.
 
RH swung to a net loss of $13.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, compared to net earnings of $7.2 million the prior year period, falling short of Wall Street expectations. Revenue grew 8% to $455.5 million from $422.4 million, but also missed projections. Increases in cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative (S,G&A) expenses helped push the retailer into the red despite improving sales.

Jane Hamilton Nielsen, who just left her position as CFO of Coach Inc. to pursue other opportunities, is not waiting long to make her new role known.

According to Fortune, Ralph Lauren is expected to announce Nielsen’s hiring as its new CFO. She would replace current Ralph Lauren CFO Robert Madore, who has held that title since April 2015.

New York City-based RCS Real Estate Advisors has announced a bid deadline of June 16, 2016 for the remaining available leases of retailer Hancock Fabrics.
 
RCS began the process of selling the retailer's leases following Hancock Fabrics' February bankruptcy announcement. Hancock Fabrics operated 250 retail stores in 37 states when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 2, 2016. Spence Mehl, senior VP of RCS, made the announcement.