Retail

Aston, Pa. – National lighting, sign and electrical maintenance and service company Action Services Group has named Joe Fairley as VP of account solutions. Fairley will be responsible for Action Services Group’s national sales development and sales management of the account solutions team. He has more than 20 years of experience in facility services.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Meijer will open two 190,000-sq.-ft. supercenters in the northern Indiana towns of Portage and Warsaw on June 13. Meijer operates more than 200 stores in the Midwest and will have 32 stores in Indiana. Meijer expects the stores to create more than 500 new jobs.

North Wilkesboro, N.C. – Despite discussions about the need for retailers to develop a “social media strategy,” the reality is that social media is not a monolithic entity. Different social media platforms reach different types of consumers, are used for different purposes and draw traffic at different times of the day. Thus, a social media strategy really needs to be a collection of smaller strategies that are built around the dynamics of each individual platform a retailer chooses to leverage.

A 4.2% first quarter same store sales increase at teen retailer Five Below and better than expected results prompted the operator of 258 stores to increase its full year guidance.
 
Sales for the quarter ended May 4 increase 33.1% to $95.6 million and operating income swung to $3.2 million from a prior year loss of $2 million. Net income was $1.6 million compared to a net loss of $1.2 million the prior year.

MIAMI — PureFormulas, a growing e-retailer that offers natural health supplements, has appointed William Perez as its CIO. Perez is a 17-year veteran in the technology world with 13 years of experience in the Internet operation space.

“We’re excited to welcome Willy to the team,” said CEO José Prendes. “He will be instrumental in our continued growth strategy and will help take our entire interactive operation and customer experience to the next level.”

TORONTO — A same-store sales decline at Lord & Taylor was not enough to keep Hudson's Bay Company's first quarter results for the period ended May 4 in the cold, thanks to strong same-store sales growth at Hudson's Bay.

The company's retail sales were $884 million for quarter, a 4% increase from $848 million for the first quarter a year ago. Consolidated same-store sales grew 4% in the first quarter. Hudson's Bay same-store sales grew nearly 8%, and were partially offset by a same-store sales decline of 1.4% at Lord & Taylor.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation has entered into a letter of intent with an affiliate of Sun Holdings, LLC for the sale of three company-owned shops in Dallas, and for Sun Holdings' further development of the Dallas market. The sale of the stores is subject to conditions, including the execution of a definitive asset purchase agreement and a development agreement pursuant to which Sun Holdings would undertake the further development of new Krispy Kreme shops in Dallas.