Corporate Governance

Goodlettsville, Tenn. – Dollar General Corp. has opened its 12th distribution center in Bethel, Pennsylvania. Dollar General announced plans to build the 930,000-sq.-ft. facility in 2012 and broke ground on the facility in fall 2012 with Kinsley Construction.

99 Cents Only Stores named Christopher Laurence as the company's interim CFO, treasurer and secretary. Laurence replaces Frank Schools, who resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Laurence joins 99 Cents Only Stores from ThreeSixty Group, a product development and sourcing company for consumer product brands and retailers. He served as its CEO for the past six years and during his 12 tenure also served in a number of key management positions.

Charlottesville, Va. — Firehouse Subs has signed a 2,264-sq.-ft. lease for its first location in Charlottesville, Virginia — at 100 Shoppers World Court.

Divaris Real Estate’s Richmond, Virginia, office represented Firehouse Subs in the transaction. Divaris (www.divaris.com) has represented Firehouse in the site selection and lease negotiations for the majority of its Hampton Roads sites and for several locations in the greater Richmond area.

First-quarter sales at Guess fell in North America and Europe. Despite a net loss of $2.1 million, compared with net earnings of $9.9 million in the year-ago period, the company touted strong momentum in its e-commerce business, adding that it remains a key initiative as consumer demand continues shifting to that channel.

Atlanta -- Logility, a leading supplier of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain, announced its acquisition of privately held MID Retail, Inc., an Indianapolis-based provider of retail allocation and merchandise planning solutions.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores announced the promotion of Shelley Broader, currently president and CEO of Walmart Canada, to executive VP, president and CEO of Walmart EMEA, effective June 1. In her new role, she will lead Walmart's retail operations and oversee business development in Europe, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Canada and will report directly to David Cheesewright, president and CEO, Walmart International.

Nashville, Tenn. – Genesco Inc. reported net earnings of $13.97 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, down 3% from $14.41 million in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. A jump in selling and administrative expenses drove the net earnings decline.

Meanwhile, net sales rose 6% to $629 million, from $591 million. Same-store sales grew 1%. Genesco expects a low-single-digit same-store sales increase for the full fiscal year.

Columbus, Ohio – A subsidiary of Express Inc. has entered into a franchise agreement with Edcon Group, a retail franchise operator in South Africa, to bring the Express brand to South Africa. The Express brand is expected to launch as a store-in-store concept at select Edgars department stores by the end of 2014 with standalone Express store locations to open in 2015.

Express has identified international expansion as one of the company's four pillars of growth and a significant long-term revenue opportunity for the company.