Corporate Governance

New York -- Winick Realty Group said that Hale & Hearty has signed a lease for its latest location at 177 Madison Avenue, between East 33rd and East 34th Streets.
 
The tenant will occupy 2,500 sq. ft. on the ground floor and 2,500 sq. ft. in the basement.
 
Hale & Hearty Soups currently has 28 locations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island.

As I prepare to pack my bags for New York to spend a few days in the NYC office and attend the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” held at Javit’s Center from Jan. 13 to 15, I feel compelled to bring up this point about the annual NRF convention: it isn’t just for techies.

Seattle -- TC Global Inc., which operates 47 Tully’s Coffee Shops, announced that it is a step closer to exiting from bankruptcy with the sale of its assets to Global Baristas, the investment group led by actor Patrick Dempsey, star of television’s Grey's Anatomy.

Seattle -- Nordstrom plans to open a full-line store in Minnetonka, Minn., at Ridgedale Center, which is owned by General Growth Properties.

The store will be approximately 138,000 sq. ft. and will open in fall 2015. It will be Nordstrom's second full-line store in Minnesota.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday it has created a new executive position to oversee new store formats in international markets.
 
Lev Khasis, who joined the company in 2011 after working in Russian retail, was named president and CEO of new formats for Wal-Mart International. He built up Russia’s largest food retailer X5 through acquisitions into a market leader before resigning to join Wal-Mart Stores.
 

Indianapolis -- Finish Line Inc. reported Friday a loss of $107,000 for the quarter ended Dec. 1, compared with a profit of $5.55 million in the year-ago period. The unexpected swing, said the company, was due in part to a lukewarm response to Finish Line’s new online store.
 
Sales in the quarter climbed 5.2% to $296.6 million, missing Wall Street’s expected $296 million in revenue, and same-store sales rose 3.6%.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreens reported Friday that sales for the month of December dipped 4% to $6.71 billion, from $6.99 billion in the year-ago period.
 
Total front-end sales fell 1.3% and same-store front-end sales decreased 2.3%.
 
Total same-store sales fell 6.1% in December.

Paris -- A Friday report by Reuters said that Virgin Megastore’s French division will declare insolvent next week, slated to unveil a plan to file for payments suspension on Jan. 7.

The French operation is the latest victim of the slump in CD and DVD sales.
 
Virgin France is owned by private equity firm Butler Capital Partners, and operates 26 Virgin-branded stores in France.

Reston, Va. -- A report released Friday by comScore showed that holiday online spending grew 14% year-over-year to $42.3 billion, as individual shopping days reached record spending levels.

Total results, however, fell slightly short of early-season predictions, as softer-than-expected buying occurred during the early to mid weeks of the period.

Weaker than expected December sales at Target will cause fourth quarter profits to come in at the low end of an earlier forecast, the company said.

Sales at Target for the five week period ended December 31, increased 0.8% to $10.2 billion while same store sales were essentially flat, below the company’s guidance which called for an increase in the low single digits. The performance was driven by a low single digit decrease in comparable store transactions, offset by an increase in average transaction size.