Club & Warehouse

NEW YORK — Private-label sales across all three major retail channels reached new highs in 2010, according the Private Label Manufacturers Association.

Sam’s is enjoying some solid momentum these days, but a potential buyout of BJ’s Wholesale Club announced Friday morning could create some competitive issues in market where the companies operations overlap.

Of course, that assumes the private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners, the companies who have joined forces to take BJ’s private, are interested in growing the business and investing in operations as opposed to simply squeezing the 190 unit retailer for cash.

New York City -- Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners said Friday they are making a joint buyout bid worth an undisclosed amount for BJ's Wholesale Club. The two private equity firms revealed their plans in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday. The bid price was not disclosed.

In February, BJ's announced it was exploring a sale. In March, Leonard Green is already the chain's larger shareholder, with a 9.3% stake.

New York City -- Two private equity firms are teaming up to make a bid to purchase BJ’s Wholesale Club, the New York Post reported.

Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners are reportedly set to offer $2.8 billion to purchase the club retailer, according to the Post.

Rumors that BJ's Wholesale could be sold have been circulating for months. In March, the chain revealed in an SEC filing that it entered into a "confidentiality agreement" with Leonard Green to evaluate a possible purchase.

Boulder, Col. -- Discount grocer Aldi ranks as the nation’s low-price grocery leader, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information.

San Mateo, Calif. -- Keynote Systems, which provides Internet and mobile cloud monitoring, announced that BJ’s Wholesale Club is using various Keynote solutions for optimizing the performance of its website.

For the first phase of the project, Keynote ran peak load tests to ensure that all components of BJ’s site were fully prepared to handle expected usage before the site went live.

New York City -- A sluggish economy, cool weather and high prices at the pump tempered retail sales in May, as retailers reported mixed results for the month. Retail Metrics projected an increase of 5.1% for the 25 chains tracked, which would mark the 21st straight monthly gain from September 2009.

Among the May standouts was Costco Wholesale Corp., with a 13% rise in same-store sales. Analysts were expecting an 11.2% increase. However, without gasoline sales and beneficial foreign exchange rates, Costco’s same-store sales would have been 7%.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. and WESTBOROUGH, Mass.  — Costco Wholesale and BJ’s Wholesale reported strong sales growth and produced impressive comps even without the benefit of fuel sales.

Costco reported that net sales for the month of May increased 17% to $7.14 billion from $6.09 billion last year. This year’s May results period included sales from the company's Mexico joint venture. If these sales are excluded, Costco’s net sales increase would have been 14%.