American Eagle

Oak Brook, Ill. - Eastwood Towne Center has signed J.Jill, who selected Eastwood Towne Center as their only location in Central Michigan. This follows on the heels of recent opening announcements by Apple, Sephora, Gymboree and a newly expanded Forever 21, also exclusive to Eastwood in Central Michigan.

The 3,600-sq.-ft. J. Jill store will be located next to Express and American Eagle. J.Jill is expected to open in the late fall.

New York -- The heat is on — in more ways than one. While Target’s search for a new chief executive has been much in the news, the discounter is not the only big retailer on the hunt for a chief executive. Here’s a brief review (all dates are 2014 except where noted):

Maybelline New York is rolling out the welcome wagon for Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima, who served as global spokesperson once before, from 2003-2009.

Lima rejoins current spokeswomen Christy Turlington, Emily DiDonato, Jourdan Dunn and Marloes Horst.  

Pittsburgh - Following a comprehensive fleet review, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. has identified 150 stores to close in North America during the next three years, including nearly 100 AE stores. For 2014, the company is planning to close approximately 50 AE and 20 aerie stores in North America.

At its Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Tampa, IBM announced ‘IBM ExperienceOne,’ a new integrated portfolio of cloud-based and on premise offerings that help clients quickly deliver deeper, more valuable customer engagements by bringing together marketing, sales and service practices.

Stamford, Conn. -- GE Capital Retail Bank announced a long-term extension of its agreement with American Eagle Outfitters to continue providing private-label credit card programs for online, mobile app, and store purchases made at any of the 856 American Eagle Outfitter and 115 Aerie locations across the U.S.

As part of the seven-year agreement, GE Capital’s Retail Finance business will continue to manage the American Eagle Outfitters credit card program, which began in 1996.

American Eagle has had a rough winter. Robert Hanson resigned as the company’s CEO following disappointing holiday sales, and severe winter weather contributed to weak fourth-quarter results.

Interim CEO Jay Schottenstein looked on the bright side as shares dropped nearly 7%, saying that the company was taking steps to bring greater focus and excitement to its product offering and better engage its core customers.

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit plunged 89% on lower sales and one-time charges related to employee severance costs, the discontinuation of a product line and other items. The company also forecast first-quarter results that were below analysts' estimates.

The teen apparel retailer posted net income of $10.5 million for the quarter ended Feb.1, down from $94.8 million in the year-ago period.

Sales were $1 billion in the quarter, down from $1.1 billion last year. Same-store sales fell 7%.

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters said that CEO Robert Hanson, would leave the company, effective immediately. He was appointed to the position in late 2011, after 23 years at Levi Strauss & Co., where he served in a number of executive roles.

Similar to many other teen retailers, American Eagle has been struggling. The company reported a profit of $24.9 million in the three months ended Nov. 2, compared to $78.6 million in the year-ago period. Revenue was $857.3 million, a decline from $910.4 million a year ago.

American Eagle plans to launch the ShopKick shopBeacon iBeacon solution in 100 top-performing American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores across the country. shopBeacon is an Apple iBeacon-based presence signal for retailers that offers customers rewards, in a currency called "kicks," for a variety of actions they take as they go about shopping.