Corporate Governance

Furniture and specialty home goods retailer Conn’s is extending its Conn’s Cares philanthropic program for a second year.

The company is partnering with First Book and Little Free Library — organizations that have been recognized by the Library of Congress for their excellence in the advancement of literacy — to expand the literacy focus of Conn’s Cares.

Online cashback shopping platform Ebates is branching more heavily into the mobile shopping arena with the acquisition of mobile product discovery app Shopular.

Redwood City, California-based Shopular has more than a million users and offers an intuitive product discovery experience and mobile shopping alerts. Leveraging proprietary geo-targeting technology, the app notifies consumers with relevant deals and coupons when they are near select stores.

Houston -- Thor Equities announced Lowe’s Companies will build a 100,000-sq.-ft. home improvement store at The Shoppes at Cinco Ranch located in Katy, Texas. The company is in the process of developing the 35-acre property, which will include retail stores and restaurant spaces. The property is anchored by Walgreens, with Kroger and Academy Sports + Outdoors located across the street.

Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings announced plans for its most ambitious expansion program ever with 11 new stores planned for 2016 following a strong fourth quarter performance.

The Midvale, Utah-based operator of 64 stores focused on the categories of hunting, fishing and camping, opened nine stores last year which combined with its strong fourth quarter showing enabled the company to produce record results. The addition of 11 stores this year will give the company, which went public in April 2014, 75 locations in 20 predominantly Western states and Alaska.

Starbucks Corp. is extending its payment platform to extend its reward program beyond its own stores.

The coffee giant announced at its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday that it will launch the Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card from Chase by the end of this year.

Fenton Mo. -- Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team brokered the sale of Fenton Commons located in Fenton, Missouri. Colorado based GDA Real Estate acquired the 82,242-sq.-ft. property for $15 million.

Fenton Commons is anchored by Best Buy, Old Navy and Barnes & Noble with Chili’s and Bank of America.

Signet Jewelers is already the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry and it plans to get even bigger in 2016 by accelerating new store and omnichannel growth.
 
Operating stores under banners such as Kay, Jared and Zale, Signet reported a 4.9% fourth quarter same-store sales increase, better than expected profits and said it would open more new stores in 2016 than it previously indicated.
 

Signet Jewelers is already the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry and it plans to get even bigger in 2016 by accelerating new store and omnichannel growth. The news came as the chain reported a same-store sales increase of 4.9% in the fourth quarter.