Sobeys

Safeway president of merchandising, Kelly Griffith, was named to a new operational position, filling a void created by the retirement of EVP of retail operations Bruce Everette.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the past two months or so have seen an unusually high level of turnover at the top? It's gotten so that you need a scorecard to keep up with all the comings and goings, as chief executives are forced out, jump ship, retire or move on.

This year's changing of the guard is bittersweet because it includes the retirement of two veteran retailers, Steve Burd of Safeway and Maxine Clark of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. said that Bruce Everette, 61, is retiring as EVP retail operations after a 44-year career at Safeway. He will be replaced by Kelly Griffith, currently the president of merchandising.

“We are deeply grateful to Bruce for his significant and lasting contribution to our company's success," said chairman and CEO Steve Burd. "He is the consummate operating executive whose results and people-oriented approach to the business leave an unmistakable imprint on who we are as a company."

Gap Inc., Ebay, Safeway, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Costco, Target, Best Buy and OfficeMax were all named to Ethisphere Institute’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list.

The companies were chosen based on an evaluation of a questionnaire provided by Ethisphere to determine each company’s Ethics Quotient (EQ).

Companies were evaluated for their own ethics policies and enforcement of such policies, ethical track record and reputation in the market place, corporate governance, corporate responsibilities and culture of ethics.

February 2013 marked a declining trend in number of inserts per market for the some retailers, but due to big increases at Macy’s (+48%) and Staples (+100%), the overall count of inserts per market across all retailers was actually up 4.3%. Home Depot (-50.0%) was the only retailer witnessing a major fall, whereas the other retailers showed only minor declines. Of the remaining retailers that did not see a decrease, five had no change in the number of inserts per market, while three (including Macy’s and Staples) increased.

AMSTERDAM — Keeping stores open during Hurricane Sandy was one of the factors that contributed to an increase in total store sales and comps in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2012 for Ahold USA, the supermarket operator's Dutch parent company said Thursday.

Ahold attributed its 4.3% increase in sales in the fourth quarter, to $6.1 billion, partially to the Hurricane Sandy effort. The quarter also saw comps increase by 2.4%, while full year sales were $25.8 billion, a 3.1% over 2011, as comps increased by 1.4%.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway Inc. reported net earnings from continuing operations of $1.06 per diluted share for the fourth quarter which ended Dec. 29, 2012. This includes a $0.12 per diluted share benefit from legal settlements. When you exclude this benefit, earnings per diluted share is 94 cents. This represents a 58% improvement in earnings per diluted share over last year when the settlements are included and a 40% improvement when the settlements are excluded. 

Whirlpool has appointed Diane Dietz, executive VP and chief marketing officer of Safeway, to its board of directors, effective immediately.

"Diane Dietz's history of leadership in the consumer products industry makes her an outstanding addition to our board," said Jeff Fettig, Whirlpool chairman and CEO. "We know her breadth of experience in driving sales and building successful brands will be invaluable to our board of directors and Whirlpool Corporation." 

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. said that its fourth-quarter net income rose 13% to $244 million, far ahead of expectations, helped by its customer loyalty program. Safeway said the program, which offers personalized discounts based on past purchases, is driving market share gains and profits.
 
Quarterly sales rose to $13.77 billion from $13.60 billion a year ago. Same-store sales, excluding fuel, inched up 0.8%.

 

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Shopkick, a shopping app, on Wednesday announced that Nielsen ranked shopkick No. 34 out of approximately 1 million apps in December 2012. While still trailing giants like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter overall, Shopkick dominated the shopping category during the holiday season, with more frequent and prolonged usage than all physical retailers' own apps including Starbucks, Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway, the app developer noted.