Corporate Governance

Amazon has landed its first apparel brand for its ever-expanding Dash button platform.    Calvin Klein skivvies are now only the push-of-a-button away. The company is one of 40 new brands that Amazon recently added to its Dash button platform, and is the first apparel company to join the ranks.     

Kit and Ace, the company founded by the family of Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, is pulling back on brick-and-mortar outside of its home base to focus online.   The upscale athleisure retailer announced it is “simplifying” its business plan and operations, reducing head office staff and closing its 32 locations in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Kit and Ace said it is shifting focus to its “solid” Canadian showrooms and global e-commerce platform.  

Office Depot continues to make good on its promise to focus on its North American business.     The retailer said it has closed on the sale of its business in South Korea to Excelsior Capital Asia, a Hong Kong- and Korea-based direct investment firm. Excelsior invests throughout Asia on behalf of major Korean institutions, pension funds and private family offices.  

Starbucks Coffee Company is going big in the Windy City — in a space that is currently to home to one of the city’s iconic retail flagships.    The coffee retailer will open a four-level, 43,000-sq.-ft. Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 2019, in the building currently occupied by Crate & Barrel. The home goods chain, which has operated a store on the site for 27 years, is expected to close its door in early 2018.   

In an action that reflects its strong performance, Costco Wholesale Corp. is about to return some $3.1 billion to investors.    The retailer announced a special cash dividend on Costco common stock of $7.00 per share, payable May 26, 2017, to shareholders. The dividend is in addition to a 5 cent increase of the company’s quarterly cash dividend to 50 cents a share.  

Williams Company Southeast has announced plans to break ground on what it claims will be the biggest to be built in Central Florida for years.   Vineland Point, a 447,500-sq.-ft. project developed by O’Connor Capital Partners on I-4 and Daryl Carter Parkway in Orlando exceeds the size of The Crosslands, another O’Connor project constructed by Williams that opened in Kissimmee in 2015.  

Fresh Market will open its second location in South Carolina’s capital region in the growing upscale suburb of Lexington.  

A new four-legged friend is roaming Boston neighborhoods, and it can bring shoppers more than their newspaper or slippers.   Spot, a four-legged, dog-like robot from Boston Dynamics, is programmed to deliver packages to consumers’ front doors, according to ReCode.