Apparel

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corp. revealed in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the previously announced spinoff of its Sears’s Outlet and Sears’s Hometown and Hardware stores will now combine the two chains into one separate company.

The move, part of Sears’ initiative to cut expense and regain profits, will result in the newly named Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. and a public offering that is expected to raise $400 to $500 million for Sears.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Express has named Theo Killion has been appointed to its board of directors as a Class III director.  Killion is CEO and a director of Zale Corp.  

New York -- Wrapp, a new online gift service from Sweden, has launched in the United States, partnering with such retailers as Gap, H&M and Sephora to let consumers send free virtual gift cards to friends on Facebook.

Pittsburgh -- Dick's Sporting Goods will open a store in Union, N.J., on May 2.

The Union location will be the retailer's 16th store in the state of New Jersey and its 487th nationwide.
 

Macon, Ga. -- Westwood Financial Corp., one of the nation’s largest owner-operators of shopping centers, has purchased Wesleyan Station, an 86,631-sq-.ft, retail center in Macon, Ga., for $8.9 million from a private seller.

A friend of mine recently called to ask my opinion of the “new” Gap. She had just returned from shopping at The Grove, an upmarket mall in Los Angles, and couldn’t get over how “different” the Gap seemed. It wasn’t just the merchandise as much as the overall environment that had struck her. Everything seemed so “fresh,” she said.

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Charming Shoppes has selected Oracle Retail to drive growth across its multiple platforms and brands. The retailer said it will use Oracle Retail applications to deploy a modern technology platform that helps transform its merchandising supply chain and store operations to reduce the total cost of ownership of hardware, software and support while enabling a better shopping experience for customers across channels and brands.

New York -- Millennial shoppers (consumers ages 18-34) now represent the highest percentage of Americans who do not have enough money to cover their basic needs according to WSL/Strategic Retail, a leading authority on shopper behavior and retail trends. The finding, which noted that nearly 25% of this young adult market say they are not able to make ends meet – as compared with 17% of adults ages 35-54, and only 13% of those age 55 and over – was revealed as part of the company’s How America Shops MegaTrends report, Moving On 2012.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Quiksilver, the manufacturer of outdoor sports apparel, has appointed Richard Shields as CFO, effective May 11. Shields will be responsible for all areas of the company’s finance and accounting on a global basis.

New York -- VF Corp. said Friday that its first-quarter profit rose 9%, helped by last year’s acquisition of Timberland and global demand for its brands from North Face to Vans.

Net income rose to $215.2 million, from $200.7 million a year earlier. Revenue was up 31% to $2.56 billion.