Corporate Governance

Despite the Easter holiday shift, Whole Foods reported second-quarter revenue of $3.32 billion, a record increase of 10% from the prior-year quarter. But the record was not enough for Wall Street, which expected $3.34 billion.

The company’s earnings per share of 38 cents for the quarter also came in below expectations of 41 cents per share.

360pi, the leader in retail price and product intelligence, today announced a collaborative effort with SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services. The goal is to allow retailers who combine 360pi's industry-leading competitive price intelligence with SAS' Revenue Optimization engine to gain full real-time visibility into competitive pricing to make more profitable pricing decisions.

PetSmart is hitting the road for its first-ever Inspiration Waggin’ six-city tour in the United States and Canada, and is leveraging social media to promote it.

As the truck makes its way across the country, dogs, puppies and cats will visit retirement centers, university campuses and local spots so people can benefit from a wagging tail and some unconditional love. The Inspiration Waggin’ will make stops in:

New York -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese Web behemoth, filed paperwork on Tuesday for what some experts claim could be one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history. The company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $1 billion, but many analysts say the company could bring in more than the $16 billion Facebook raised in 2012.

New York -- U.S. retail and consumer  merger & acquisition activity during first quarter 2014 was primarily driven by five multibillion dollar transactions, with more than half aligned to the food and beverage sector, confirming a positive deals outlook for the year, according to PwC’s U.S. retail and consumer deals insights first quarter 2014 report.
   

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market on Tuesday reported a profit for its fiscal second quarter that fell short of Wall Street expectations. The grocery store operator also cut its outlook for the year.

For the quarter ended April 13, Whole Foods earned $142 million, unchanged from last year, amid higher expenses.

Revenue rose to $3.32 billion, short of the $3.34 billion Wall Street expected. Same-store sales rose 4.5%, hurt by the shift of Easter to the third quarter this year.

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. announced that it will be the first in Oregon to deploy a fleet of heavy-duty trucks that run on Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). The 40 trucks will replace 40 diesel trucks currently in use, and are expected to start making store deliveries in the Portland metropolitan area by the end of 2014.

The use of natural gas fuel not only reduces operating costs for vehicles, but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions up to 23% in medium- to heavy-duty vehicles.

New York -- Google has purchased analytics firm Adometry, which helps advertisers get a better return on digital advertising by providing better attribution on the data collected about ads, including whether an ad was viewed, and whether it led to a sale.

Here is the statement from the Google Analytics team:

Dayton, Ohio -- Retail design and brand strategy firm Interbrand Design Forum announced that Ryan Brazelton has returned to the company as a senior director of design.  

Most recently Brazelton worked for Aveda as global design director. In that role he oversaw store design, packaging and the development of corporate collateral, in addition to campaign design across all forms of media. Prior to that, he served as design director at Fitch. Brazelton was previously with Interbrand Design Forum for six years as the group leader of graphic design.

Chevy Chase, Md. — Formerly known as 2b Bebe, Bebe has rebranded at six Mills properties across the country.

Shoppers will find the new Bebe concept at Arizona Mills (Phoenix), Franklin Mills (Philadelphia), Great Mall (San Francisco), Ontario Mills (Los Angeles), Potomac Mills (Washington, D.C.) and Sawgrass Mills (Ft. Lauderdale/Miami).

The Mills, a hybrid outlet concept, is one of Simon Property Group’s five real estate platforms.