Corporate Governance

Specialty beverage retailer BevMo! has appointed former Safeway executive Douglas J. Ratto as the company's EVP, chief merchant. Ratto will lead the buying, planning, allocations and distribution teams at BevMo!

Kraft Foods Group has selected Becknell Industrial to develop and build a new warehouse to support its existing facility in Champaign, Ill. The 730,000-sq.-ft. warehouse will be located on a 35-acre parcel adjacent to its manufacturing site, which is Kraft's largest production facility in North America.

Under Armour has opened its first retail theater specialty store at the Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, China. The store features a multi-dimensional short film that depicts athletes who use the brand.

Founder and CEO Kevin Plank and Under Armour athlete Michael Phelps were on hand to host the grand opening event.

Hibbett Sports has put its succession plan into motion. Effective Feb. 2, 2014, Mickey Newsome will go from executive chairman of the board and CEO to non-executive chairman. Additionally, president and CEO Jeff Rosenthal has been appointed to the board, bringing the total number of members 10.

Driving sales with an established brand at multiple retail accounts is hard enough for the biggest consumer packaged goods companies. Creating a new brand in a nonexistent category is even more daunting as a pair of entrepreneurial family members discovered a decade ago when they launched the Granite Gold line of stone-care products. This is their story.

Two stone guys with no experience in consumer package goods or retail set out to conquer the world by trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

J.C. Penney has joined the list of retail chains that plan to open their stores on Thanksgiving night to kick off the holiday shopping season. 

Penney will open most of its 1,100 stores at 8 p.m., the same as Macy's. Last year, Penney opened its stores at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, while rivals Macy’s and Kohl’s opened their doors at midnight.

Former Walmart executive Dijuana Lewis will be joining Aetna as EVP, responsible for the newly formed Consumer Products and Enterprise Marketing organization.

In this role, she will be responsible for aligning consumer-focused businesses, products, services and capabilities to deliver a personalized end-to-end consumer experience that positions the company for long-term growth.

Lewis will report directly to Aetna chairman, CEO and president Mark Bertolini and will be a member of the company’s executive committee.

It’s one down and more than 11,000 to go as Dollar General has opened its first ever fueling station at a store in Hanceville, Ala.

The pilot project is part of an agreement with Mansfield Oil, a provider of fuel supply, distribution, delivery, and dispensing solutions. The store in question is one of Dollar General’s larger format Market stores which include expanded food and consumables. Dollar General operates more than 11,000 stores nationwide, but slightly more than 100 units are in the Market format.

Target is taking a page from Apple and remodeling its electronics department to echo the minimalist format seen in Apple and even Best Buy stores, according to a report in the StarTribune.

 “It’s more a minimalist approach with space for consumers to touch and test the merchandise,” said Chris Christopher, director of consumer electronics at IHS Global Insight in Massachusetts, in the report.

Leading U.K. food retailer Sainsbury just past online grocery sales of £1 billion ($1.6 billion U.S.) and to celebrate the occasion announced plans to open its first dedicated online fulfillment center in east London.

Home delivery of grocery is more commonplace in the U.K., especially London, where higher population densities and prohibitively high fuel prices discourage vehicle ownership.