Corporate Governance

Lands' End names new COO/CFO in wake of Q4 sales slump
Lands’ End is making some significant executive moves in the wake of reporting a preliminary same-store sales decline of 8% to 10% for the fourth quarter.

Lands' End announced that it has named James (Jim) Gooch as its new executive VP, COO and CFO. Gooch will report directly to Marchionni, and will be responsible for overseeing operational and financial functions for the company. He will succeed Michael Rosera, who will be leaving the company.
CBRE hires global executive of Retail Occupier, EMEA
London -- CBRE Group Inc. has appointed Mark Burlton as Global Executive of its Retail Occupier team, EMEA. Burlton will lead the development of CBRE’s Retail Occupier business in Europe, as well as advising its European retail clients on expansion into the US and Asia, and international retailers into Europe.

Burlton will be based in London and work closely with Peter Gold, head of cross border retail, EMEA and David Close, senior director, EMEA occupier cross border. He will also join CBRE’s Global Retail Executive Group.

Hhgregg ends the year on a sour note

Hhgregg's holiday disaster was confirmed Thursday when the struggling retailer officially posted a loss of $26.9 million in its fiscal third quarter.

The company said that for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, net sales decreased 10.9% to $593 million, compared to the prior year third quarter.
Tiffany smells growth with Coty fragrance deal

Tiffany & Co. has come up with a new way to showcase its brand and it has nothing to do with jewelry.

The retailer announced it has entered into an agreement with Coty for the development, production and distribution of a new line of Tiffany fragrances for both women and men, to be sold at Tiffany & Co. stores as well as at other select luxury retailers.
SPECS 2016: The ‘Store Transformed’ comes to Dallas

For more than 50 years, retail store planning, construction and facilities executives have gathered for the annual SPECS conference to assess key industry challenges and invent the future. That will be the case again this year, as SPECS focuses on the transformation and evolution of physical stores in a digital age.
Walmart offers Amazon alternative in the cloud

After two years of development, Walmart’s OneOps cloud management and application lifecycle platform is being made available to the open source community in a move that highlights a sharp distinction with Amazon Web Services.
The new queens of candy revealed

Photo: Julie Bierman, left, with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, and Jennifer Dilts, right, with Dollar General will be honored at the upcoming NCA annual meeting.
eBay grows modestly in fourth quarter

The eBay platform facilitated commerce of nearly $22 billion in the fourth quarter, a 5% increase, and counted roughly 265 million transactions during the holiday season.
Warm weather costly for Tractor Supply; growth plans intact

The nation’s largest rural lifestyle retailer had previously warned that warm weather caused weaker-than-expected fourth quarter sales and it quantified the impact on profitability with the release of full financial results on Jan. 27.
eBay grows modestly in Q4

The eBay platform facilitated commerce of nearly $22 billion in the fourth quarter, a 5% increase, and counted roughly 265 million transactions during the holiday season.
Survey: Consumers identify major purchase inhibitor

A lot of attention has been paid to purchase drivers, but what about factors that prevent consumers from buying your products?

A new study of 900 U.S. consumers conducted in November 2015 by international law firm Morrison & Foerster indicates that concerns about privacy are reducing the number of purchases customers make.

At least once in the last 12 months, more than one-third (35%) of respondents indicated that they had decided not to purchases products or services from a company because of privacy concerns.
Report: Wendy’s suffers possible data breach

Fast-food chain The Wendy’s Co. may be the first big retailer to suffer a public data security incident in 2016.

According to the Krebs on Security blog, Wendy’s is investigating possible fraudulent activity related to credit cards used at some of its store locations. Wendy’s was notified earlier this month by partners in the payment industry that unusual activity was occurring.