Corporate Governance

Walmart deepened its commitment to domestic sourcing and supply chain efficiency on Thursday when Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon unveiled a first-of-its-kind RFP process and a new Innovation Fund.

Both revelations came at an event Walmart holds each spring in Orlando known as the Year Beginning Meeting, or simply YBM. While much of the several day event is focused on Walmart store managers, a portion is devoted to trading partners who are given the opportunity to hear from top executives.

Seattle -- Starbucks has opened up its first company-operated store on a Disney property, at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif. The 5,600-sq.-ft. store is the first of several company-operated locations that are scheduled open across Disney properties in the United States.

Despite continued adverse weather conditions throughout February and into March, Kirkland's president and CEO Robert Alderson said that early first-quarter sales and margin trends have been positive and encouraging.

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma reported a better-than-expected profit of $133.8 million in the fourth quarter, up slightly from $133.7 million in the year-ago period. The company also announced it is lifting its dividend 2 cents, or 6%, to 33 cents a share.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. — Mid-America Real Estate Corp.’s investment sales team has brokered the sale of Shadeland Station. Time Equities purchased the 104,906-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored shopping center. Marsh Supermarkets and Dollar Tree anchor the center.

Mid-America Real Estate Corp. in cooperation with Mid-America Real Estate – Indiana LLC brokered the transaction exclusively on behalf of the seller, a joint venture between Tri-Land Developments and an affiliate of Equity Group Investments.

An unrelenting Dollar General continues to push forward with plans to open 700 stores this year despite reporting weak financial results and a 1.3% same-store sales increase for the fourth quarter.

San Antonio -- Stephen Smith, former co-CEO of the Toronto-based restaurant chain owner and operator Cara Operations Limited, has been elected to the CST Brands' board of directors. Smith's most recent experience was with Cara as co-CEO and, prior to that, CFO of Cara. Previously, Smith served for many years as an executive of Canadian grocer, Loblaw Companies Limited.

Lakewood, Colo. -- Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. has adopted MicroStrategy as its enterprise analytics standard. The company said an expansion of MicroStrategy licenses will allow it to rapidly deploy and extend its mobile application that provides store-level information to its management team.