Financial/Banking

WEST CHESTER, Pa. — QVC, a global leader in video and e-commerce retail, has appointed former Hershey’s executive Ted Jastrzebski as the company’s new CFO. Jastrzebski will oversee QVC's financial operations, and will report to president and CEO Mike George.

Dallas – Neiman Marcus had a strong third quarter fiscal 2013, reporting a substantial increase in net earnings as well as growth total revenues and same store sales.

Net earnings grew 13% compared to third quarter of last year, from $62.6 million to $70.8 million from $62.6 million.

Total revenues increased 4%, from $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion.

Same store sales grew 3.6%.

Santa Monica, Calif. — Private investment firm Clearlake Capital Group has begun the process of acquiring the Retail Solutions Group of Agilysys through a newly formed affiliate, Kyrus Solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the early summer. 

Tokyo -- A Sunday report by Bloomberg said that 7-Eleven parent Seven & I Holdings Co. is planning more acquisitions here and may more than double the number of c-store stores it operates in North America.

The company “could increase our store number to 20,000 or even 30,000 [in North America],” chairman Toshifumi Suzuki told Bloomberg in an interview.  7-Eleven currently has more than 8,000 convenience stores in North America.

No time-frame for the planned expansion has been defined.

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending dropped 0.2% in April 2013, according to the Commerce Department.

It was the first monthly decline since May of last year and follows increases of 0.1% in March and 0.8% in February. Falling gas prices in April were part of the reason for the drop in spending, with purchases of gas, electricity and other energy goods and services down 4.4%.

In addition, increased Social Security deductions in consumer paychecks may have also contributed to the decline in spending.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Genesco, a specialty footwear and apparel retailer operating numerous brick-and-mortar and online retail brands including Journeys and Lids.com, reported declines in earnings and net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014.

The company’s earnings declined 11% to $18.5 million from $20.8.

Net sales decreased 1.5% to $591 million from $600 million. Same-store sales fell 4%. Earnings remained slightly ahead of the company’s expectations.

NEW YORK — Costco Wholesale Corp. is looking to open approximately 150 locations over the next five years, CFO Richard Galanti said on the company’s quarterly conference call with investors.

“And if we get a little better than that, great,” he added. “But that’s certainly a good starting point given where we’ve come over the last few years.”

Of the total, about 55 of the new units would be in the United States, with the rest located in Canada or foreign markets.