Corporate Governance

San Antonio, Texas — The Retail Connection has brought retail development veteran David Berndt on board to extend the company’s tenant driven retail development capacity. Berndt will join as Development Partner of The Retail Connection | Connected Development Services. In that role, he will lead the company’s development platform in Central and South Texas.

The Retail Connection is expanding its capabilities across the board in Central and South Texas, adding senior brokerage leaders too.

New York -- Despite severe winter weather travails during the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said Tuesday that December retail sales didn’t take the hit that many feared.

In fact, taking advantage of heavy promotions and last-minute deals, shoppers were able to move the December retail sales needle up 0.4% month-to-month, excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, and up 4.6% year-over-year.



Atlanta -- Christine Day, the outgoing CEO of Lululemon, has been appointed CEO at Luvo, a start-up frozen-food company that focuses on healthy, low calorie, low sodium meals. Day’s appointment is effective April 1.

PetSmart is making changes to its management team and organizational structure in conjunction with the retirement of president and COO Joseph O’Leary. The changes will become effective April 4.

Assuming the role of president will be current CEO David Lenhardt.

Wayne, N.J. – Babies "R" Us announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with TheBump.com, a leading pregnancy and parenting website that offers advice, ideas, resources and support to first-time parents as they navigate pregnancy.

Under the arrangement, Babies “R” Us’ registry will now be available to a new, expanded audience of moms-to-be who can create and share their registry directly from TheBump.com via its gift registry center.

Environmental Defense Fund has hired Diane Munns as senior director, smart power collaboration.

Munns joins EDF from MidAmerican Energy Company where she served as VP of regulatory relations and energy efficiency since 2008. She represented the company at national and regional regulatory forums and was responsible for direct management of the energy efficiency group, including strategy, personnel, budget and compliance.

By Lee Peterson, WD Partners

If a sacred cow exists among retail strategists today, the price-match is undoubtedly it. As the weapon of first resort, it is the most obvious defense against the rapid rise of “showrooming” and the unbridled growth of online retailing behemoths like Amazon, ruthlessly cutting into retailers’ profits.

GameStop reported increases in global and same-store sales for the nine-week holiday sales period ended Jan. 4, but results missed analysts’ expectations thanks to a greater-than-expected decline in sales of new game titles for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.