Corporate Governance

Hampshire Group has promoted David Price to the role of chief operating officer. Price held the role of SVP of operations at Hampshire Group since 2012.

He will report to chairman and CEO Paul Buxbaum, and will oversee operations in all divisions of Hampshire Group.

“We are thrilled to promote David into the role of COO. David has been an integral part of the turnaround effort of Hampshire Group, and he will serve an even more important role in building the business going forward,” said Buxbaum.

Lawrenceville, N.J. -- EBay, Google and Walmart have endorsed a new GS1 U.S. guide that resolves incorrect and duplicate product information online. Developed for e-tailers, retailers, e-commerce platform providers, content aggregators and content distributors, the GTIN Validation Guide offers best practices for leveraging GS1 standards to enhance the consumer shopping experience while boosting e-tailer efficiency, revenue and loyalty.

It’s onto the next step for Safeway and Albertsons. No additional bidders emerged during Safeway’s 21-day “go shop” period following Albertsons’ announcement of its intention to acquire the company.

Under the definitive merger agreement, Safeway and its representatives were permitted to solicit and engage in negotiations with respect to alternative acquisition proposals during the 21-day period that ended March 27.

Indianapolis – The Finish Line Inc. reported net income of $42.75 million during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, up 28% from $33.47 million in the year-ago period.

Net sales grew 17% to $518.87 million from $442.68 million and same-store sales rose 6.3%. Finish Line credited its omni-channel strategy, among other factors, as driving its impressive quarterly performance.

New York -- Saddled with high levels of debt and sluggish sales, Brookstone Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, with a plan already in place to be bought by another specialty retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported.

By Jeff Echols, senior director of product and solutions marketing, CommVault

Because it is a global company with five country-specific sites and plans to expand, Toms recently extended its initial six-month engagement with TAISTech for two additional years. TAISTech will provide ongoing maintenance and support for all of the Toms sites that currently use the Oracle Commerce ATG and Endeca platform.

TAISTech provides flexible ATG support plans through onshore, offshore or blended models. Toms selected the offshore model, which provides lower overall costs, coupled with high-quality, responsive solutions.
 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. retailers reportedly have $300 million in refunds with ocean freight vendors, yet they are unaware of this because of invoice errors by their ocean freight transportation providers. According to a report from ocean freight auditing service Ocean Audit, problems with infrastructure of ocean freight carriers are also part of the issue.