Corporate Governance

The Coca-Cola Company is making management and organizational changes to Coca-Cola Americas as part of its agenda to accelerate growth.

The company, which reorganized its operating structure last year, is taking further steps to streamline its focus and expedite its refranchising to independent bottling partners.

Effective Jan. 1, 2014, the integrated North America business will be segmented into a traditional company and bottler operating model that will consist of two operating units: Coca-Cola North America and Coca-Cola Refreshments.

The Campbell Soup Company has appointed Yin Woon Rani to the newly created role of VP of integrated marketing, effective Jan. 2, 2014. She will be based at Campbell’s world headquarters in Camden, N.J.

Rani will be responsible for establishing the strategic direction for Campbell’s advertising, media, global design and digital marketing and social media, and for ensuring alignment with Campbell’s business strategies.

Safeway has made enhancements to its online grocery shopping website to make it more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments.

Safeway collaborated with its visually impaired customers to make the necessary changes to its website. As such, the company has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard.

Mystery Tackle Box is a monthly subscription service that introduces beginner and expert anglers to new fishing lures and tackle. The innovative e-commerce operation sends subscribers a box containing $15 worth of fishing products every month.

Charlotte, N.C. — A 75,000-sq.-ft. Belk will anchor the Juban Crossing lifestyle center in Livingston Parish, La., in the fall of 2014. Construction of the $7 million store will begin in February.

Los Angeles — Retail real estate showed the strongest growth in capital values and rents of all property types globally in the third quarter of 2013, according to CBRE Group, Inc.

Houston — Exceptional job growth, population gains and improved retail fundamentals have significantly elevated the sales prices for shopping centers in Texas over the last year, according to Deal Sikes & Associates, a Houston-based real estate valuation and counseling firm.

Some retail properties have increased in value more than 20 percent in 2013, compared to last year, added Matthew Deal, principal at Deal Sikes & Associates.

Washington, D.C. – Retail sales in November increased a better-than-expected 0.7% seasonally-adjusted month-to-month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. (The figure includes categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations, and restaurants.) Analysts were expecting sales to rise 0.6% in last month. The latest retail sales numbers were 4.7% above November 2012 numbers.

New York -- J.C. Penny will eliminate the jcp menswear brand and reduce the assortments in its Joe Fresh, Michael Graves and Martha Stewart lines, Reuters reported. All four brands were introduced by former CEO Ron Johnson. Penney plans to use the resulting space to emphasize its exclusive private-label brands.

New York -- MasterCard plans to expand its world headquarters in Purchase, N.Y.,  suburbs and open a technology lab in Manhattan, the Associated Press reported.

The report said that MasterCard is investing several million dollars to open a new mobile e-commerce technology lab in New York City, which will lead to 122 new research and development and software jobs in Manhattan.