Corporate Governance

Kip Tindell, chairman and CEO of The Container Store, is giving up his CEO title. He will continue as chairman of the company, which he co-founded in 1978..

The mergers and acquisitions market in consumer-retail overall will be active in 2016, but will also return to a more rational market with better balance between buyers and sellers and more reasonable deal values for higher-risk acquisitions.

A company that achieved global fame for its simple glazed doughnuts has been acquired by the owners of a growing coffee empire. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has agreed to be acquired by JAB Beech Inc., a unit of German investment firm JAB Holding Company, for about $1.35 billion. The deal, which would take Krispy Kreme private, is the most recent in a string of purchases by JAB Holdings, including its acquisition in late 2015 of single-serve coffee maker Keurig Green Mountain.

Abercrombie & Fitch is expanding its presence in the Middle East. The retailer has entered into an agreement with Majid Al Futtaim Fashion to open stores in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Since 2013, Abercrombie, in partnership with Majid Al Futtaim Fashion, has opened eight stores in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Canadian footwear and accessory retailer The Aldo Group is not ignoring the back end when it comes to supporting seamless commerce. Aldo is deploying the CGS BlueCherry B2B e-commerce solution to enable its buyers to select assortments and receive confirmed orders virtually anywhere and anytime. With more than 2,500 points of sale and nearly 2,000 retail stores across the globe, Aldo is always trying to better engage its large network of wholesale and franchisee retail buyers.

New York City-based lifestyle apparel retailer, Nautica, a division of VF Corp., has opened a flagship in Manhattan, in the SoHo neighborhood. The 2,000-sq.-ft. store opening embodies the brand's refreshed marketing and design strategy which celebrates the company’s roots as well as its established nautical heritage.

Five retail chains rank among the top 10 brands doing a poor job when it comes to emotional engagement, a measure of how well brands meet consumer expectations, according to an annual survey.

A surprising decline in retail hiring helped trigger a weak employment report for April.

Job growth in April slowed sharply to a seven-month low. The report gave back growth seen earlier in the year, and the retail industry — excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants — showed a decline of 4,900 jobs, the National Retail Federation reported.