Corporate Governance

J.C. Penney scored its first positive quarterly sales result since 2011, reporting a same-store sales increase of 2% in the fourth quarter, which included the holiday season.

Arlington, Va. -- The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is encouraged by passage of the Save American Workers Act of 2013 (H.R. 2575) out of the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. According to RILA, the act is an important first step in changing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) definition of full-time employees from 30 hours of service to a definition more in-line with employment practices.

Minneapolis – John J. Mulligan, CFO and executive VP of Target, is publicly calling for U.S. businesses to adopt chip-enabled smartcards. In a column published in the Congressional blog of political site The Hill, Mulligan said the attack on Target exposed the sophistication of today’s hackers and that the retailer had already been striving toward adopting chip-enabled smartcards, used in most of the rest of the world, before the holiday 2013 data breach.

Salt Lake City – Park City Group is adding enhancements to its food safety solution known as ReposiTrak. To enhance interaction between product suppliers and their customers, a communication feature has been added to ReposiTrak related to each referential document.  

Vera Bradley has restructured its executive team and promoted key figures, effective immediately.

"We have a lot of talent and experience within our company, and these promotions and realignments will help position us for the future. I am confident that we are in the process of assembling the right team to achieve our long-term goals, drawing from both our own leadership team and attracting new talent to the organization," said CEO Robert Wallstrom.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. — Mid-America Asset Management recently appointed Teddy Adamczyk as assistant asset manager.

His new responsibilities include acting as a liaison with clients, tenants, local governments and corporate offices on all property related matters and day-to-day retail center management. Prior to joining Mid-America, Adamczyk worked in the insurance industry.

San Francisco – More than 70% of time on responsive web design (RWD) is spent on the back end in areas such as integration and infrastructure. According to a new report from Moovweb and Forrester Research, 63% of 146 surveyed U.S. companies using RWD today believe that this technique is not suitable for long-term use, suggesting that RWD is largely viewed as a short-term, tactical approach to enterprise mobility.

Hampstead, Md. – The correspondence between Jos. A. Bank and The Men’s Wearhouse continues, and it’s not all love letters. In response to a letter sent Jan. 30 from the Men’s Wearhouse board urging Jos. A. Bank to reconsider its recent all-cash offer to acquire Jos. A. Bank for $57.50 per share, or about $1.6 billion, Jos. A. Bank — which rejected that offer on Jan. 20 — does not sound anxious to revisit it in the most recent letter it sent to Men’s Wearhouse president and CEO Doug Ewert.