Apparel

Toronto -- J. Crew announced Friday it will open its first Canadian store in August at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, located in Toronto.

The approximately 5000-sq.-ft. store, which will offer women’s-only clothing and accessories, marks J. Crew’s international debut, joining recent market entries by retailers such as Target and Big Lots in leveraging Canada’s relatively strong economy.

Indianapolis -- Finish Line reported Thursday that earnings for the quarter ended May 28 rose 20% to $16.4 million, compared with $13.6 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue, despite a 6% rise to $299 million, missed Wall Street expectations of $301.4 million.

Same-store sales increased 6.1% for the quarter.

Los Angeles -- X Team International said that Los Angeles-based partner Cypress Retail Group has completed a lease for the first full-service 24 Hour Fitness SuperSport in North Hollywood, Calif.

Walmart attracted nearly 33.6 million unique visitors to its website in May, earning the company the 29th spot on comScore’s monthly ranking of the top 50 U.S. web properties. That sounds like a lot of traffic, but 7th ranked Amazon.com drew nearly three times that level with 94.9 million unique visitors. Other notable, retail-oriented companies and their rank included 13th ranked Apple, with 70.3 million unique visitors, 14th ranked eBay, with 67.2 million unique visitors and 20th ranked Craigslist, with 51.8 million unique visitors.

Nashville, Tenn. -- Genesco announced Thursday that it has acquired Schuh Group, a specialty retailer of casual and athletic footwear based in the United Kingdom.

The purchase price was $159 million.

Headquartered in Scotland, Schuh operates 59 stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, 16 concessions in Republic apparel stores and one of the U.K.'s largest online shoe websites. 

Fort Myers, Fla. -- Chico's FAS announced Thursday that it has named Pamela K. Knous as executive VP, CFO and chief accounting officer, effective immediately.

Knous, 57, was previously executive VP and CFO of SuperValu.
 

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Chico's has named Pamela Knous EVP, CFO and chief accounting officer. Knous assumes the principal finance, accounting, investor relations, and strategic planning responsibilities currently under the direction of Kent Kleeberger, who was appointed to the position of EVP, COO in March. Knous is expected to join the company on June 23 and will report directly to Chico's president and CEO, David Dyer.

New York City -- Tiffany & Co. reported Thursday that it has shuffled responsibilities among two of its executive officers, effective immediately.

Patrick F. McGuiness, 45, has been appointed senior VP and CFO. He joined Tiffany in 1990 and has held a variety of management positions within the finance and merchandising divisions. He was promoted to senior VP finance in 2007, and the new appointment adds responsibility for the retailer’s investor relations program.