Corporate Governance

Chicago — Jones Lang LaSalle has announced that the firm has been retained to manage Shops Around Lenox, a 124,409-sq.-ft. open-air center off Peachtree Road in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. The property’s tenant mix includes Crate & Barrel, Lululemon Athletica, Swank, Deka, Ona Atlanta, Paper Source, Suit Supply, Seven Lamps and Bhojanic.

New Orleans — Smoothie King Franchises has announced that it is targeting Atlanta for franchise expansion. The company, which will unveil its new store design next month in South Florida, plans to open 25 new locations in the Atlanta region over the next five years.

Target plans to carry on its Canadian expansion this year with nine additional stores, the majority of which will open in Ontario, although the retailer plans to open single stores in Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C.

Herman G. Rowland Sr., Chairman of the Board for Jelly Belly Candy Co., is the recipient of the first ISM Lifetime Achievement Award.

ISM, a trade show of confectionery and snack products, honored Rowland with the show's first award to kick off this year's show.

Leading global brand extension agency Beanstalk has promoted Allison Ames to president of the company. In her new role, Ames will assume many of the day-to-day leadership and operational responsibilities for the company globally.

She will also work alongside CEO Michael Stone on many of the company’s short and long-term strategic growth initiatives.

The retail and consumer packaged goods industry fared poorly in a recent global ranking of corporate sustainability leaders with the handful of standouts being Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and Campbell Soup Company.

The ranking of 100 companies compiled by Corporate Knights, a media, research and investment advisory company, included only17 U.S. companies and only two retailers. Sweden’s H&M was ranked 64th and Staples was ranked 72nd.

President Obama in his State of the Union address last night said he plans to sign an executive order increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour for workers on new government contracts and asked Congress to approve the same increase for all workers — and the National Retail Federation is not happy.

NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay issued a response ahead of the president’s address.

Retailer and CPG companies’ usage of Facebook to engage with customers helped propel the 10-year-old social media platform to record levels of usage, sales and profitability in the fourth quarter.

Facebook said its daily active users increased 22% to 757 million while mobile daily active users increased 49% to 556 million. Those who used Facebook on a monthly basis increased 16% to 1.23 billion and those who did so monthly via a mobile device totaled 945 million.

Kozy Shack, a 50-year-old pudding brand, is hiring a spokes-grandma to represent the brand nationally in online, broadcast and print advertisements.

The call for applications has been put out coast-to-coast: Pudding-loving grandmas can submit their applications at KozyShack.me/Grandma now through Jan. 31. More information can be found in job postings on Monster, Careerbuilder and LinkedIn.

In celebration of seven straight years winning "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Home Improvement Retail Stores" in the J.D. Power Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study, Ace Hardware is kicking off its first-ever J.D. Power Award Neighborhood Tour across the country.