JCPenney Co.

STAMFORD, Conn. -- GE Capital Retail Bank, a consumer lending unit of General Electric Company (GE), has renewed its private label credit card program with JCPenney.

The JCP consumer card program provides credit to millions of consumers who shop at more than 1,100 JCPenney stores in communities across the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as online at JCP.com. 

Stamford, Conn. -- GE Capital Retail Bank, a consumer lending unit of General Electric Company (GE), has renewed its private label credit card program with J.C. Penney Co.

The JCP consumer card program provides credit to millions of consumers who shop at more than 1,100 J.C. Penney stores in communities across the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as online at JCP.com.

New York -- J. C. Penney Co boosted its borrowing capacity under a bank credit facility by $100 million to $1.85 billion and expanded an option to borrow more at a later date.  

"As we enter the second year of our transformation, today's announcement reflects the confidence of our banking group in our long-term strategy and further strengthens our liquidity position as we continue to execute our plan," J.C. Penny CFO Ken Hannah said in a statement.

The year started on a positive note with increases in both number of flyers and pages released to market. More than half of the retailers (56%) maintained previous levels or showed an increase in size of their circulars in January 2013. In addition, the number of inserts per market also showed an increase with almost half (44%) of the advertisers showing a rise in flyer drops for this month. Overall, the number of pages increased slightly (+3.1%), and the number of flyers rose (+8.4%) compared to last year.

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. filed a lawsuit on Monday asking a Delaware judge to declare that it is not in a default of its bond agreements, protecting nearly $3 billion of debt from being due in the coming months, Reuters reported.

According to the report, J.C. Penney received a letter earlier on Monday from the Brown Rudnick law firm that said J.C. Penney had breached a covenant of a bond indenture agreement by granting a lien on its inventory. J.C. Penney filed the lawsuit after receiving the letter.     

New York -- As part of its charitable giving program, jcp cares, J.C. Penney is inviting its customers to round up their purchases in February to the nearest whole dollar and donate the difference to benefit Dress for Success, an organization that providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help disadvantaged women thrive in work and in life.
 

Clarksville, Tenn. -- Youngstown, Ohio-based Cafaro Co. said that Ross Dress for Less will open a new store at Governor’s Square Mall, its first in the Clarksville, Tenn., area.

When it opens in the summer of 2013, the new store will occupy more than 31,000 sq. ft. next to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Governor’s Square Mall comprises over one million sq. ft. of retail space and is anchored by Dillards, Belk, Sears, J.C. Penney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, and Cinema Ten.

New York  -- For the third consecutive year,  Subway came out on top on BrandIndex’s annual ranking of the most buzzed about U.S. brands. The BrandIndex Buzz Rankings compares “Buzz” scores for nearly 1,100 brands across 41 categories  to reveal the brands with the most positive Buzz in 2012.  

Subway had a Buzz score of 40.3. Online giant  Amazon came in at number two for the second year in a row, with a score of  36.8  Lowe’s was fifth, with a score of 32.7.