Corporate Governance

St. Louis – Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. reported declining year-over-year revenues for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013 in a partial preliminary earnings release.

On a preliminary basis, Build-A-Bear reported total fourth quarter revenues of $107 million, down 9% from $118.2 million in the same period a year earlier. Preliminary fiscal year revenues were down slightly to $378 million from $380.2 million.

Warren, Mich. – Art Van Furniture is adding its seventh Chicagoland location in Downers Grove. Renovations are set to begin to transform the two-story 106,000-square-ft. building into a new store scheduled to open in January 2015.

Washington, D.C. – Despite economic challenges, the restaurant industry should experience its fifth consecutive year of sales growth in 2014. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA) 2014 Restaurant Industry Forecast, industry sales are projected to exceed $683 billion in 2014, up 3.6% from 2013’s sales volume of $659.3 billion.

Matthews, N.C. – The board of directors has increased the amount of the regular quarterly dividend payment to $0.31 per share, an increase of 19.2% from the preceding quarterly cash dividend of $0.26 per share. The increase will be effective with the declaration of the next quarterly dividend.

Woonsocket, R.I. – CVS/pharmacy has kicked off its annual Project Health wellness campaign. Project Health will deliver more than $15 million worth of free health services to multicultural communities across the U.S. in 2014.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Stella & Dot has selected GT Nexus to serve as the company’s end-to-end global supply chain visibility platform. The specialty jewelry retailer will leverage GT Nexus to help sustain its pace of business growth by standardizing processes and delivering visibility into the status of inventory from the moment goods are ordered through delivery to global distribution centers.

By Tom Stockham, [email protected]

Remember the days when stores differentiated themselves against the competition on service? When consumers sought out expert product recommendations from knowledgeable sales associates? And bought from the one who worked hardest to help them find just the right product for their needs?

Pittsburgh - GNC Holdings, Inc. will deploy VeriFone’s newest NFC-enabled multimedia payment device at more than 3,100 of its U.S. retail locations. The payment device will position GNC for potential future endeavors such as EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) payments and customer marketing at the POS.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian fashion retailer Marisa has selected a range of integrated Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions including Assortment Planning, Merchandise Financial Planning, Item Planning, Demand Forecasting, Size Profile Optimization, Clearance Optimization Engine and Allocation to assist the company in targeting assortments based on market opportunities and customer preferences.

Seattle – Technicians working at an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Middletown, Del., have reportedly rejected a bid to unionize from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). According to Reuters, a group of 27 maintenance and repair technicians voted against joining the IAM, 21-6.