Department Store

NEW YORK -Tiffany & Co. announced that James Quinn will retire in early 2012. Quinn joined Tiffany in 1986 and has served as president since 2003, responsible for the company’s sales outside the Americas.

New York City -- Tiffany & Co. announced that James Quinn will retire in early 2012. Quinn joined Tiffany in 1986 and has served as president since 2003, responsible for the company’s sales outside the Americas.

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney announced that, for the third consecutive year, it was ranked No. 1 among department store retailers in the Customers' Choice survey released by the NRF Foundation and American Express.

Armonk, N.Y. -- The U.S. online retail sector delivered double-digit growth in December 2010 compared with the same period last year, according to analytics-based findings by IBM. Online sales were up 12%, with consumers pushing the average order value up from $171.06 to $190.42 for an increase of 11.3%.

Atlanta -- Harrods is implementing a series of merchandise planning applications from Predictix. The software is being rolled out for Harrods' Knightsbridge store, as well as its airport locations and online site.

Harrods recognized a need to upgrade its current planning system to allow for more in-depth and more efficient forecasting processes.

More than one-third of the world’s 250 largest retailers suffered a decline in sales in fiscal 2009 (encompasses June 2009 through June 2010), according to the Global Powers of Retailing 2011 report, whose results were revealed at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo in New York City. The annual report, from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, identifies the largest 250 retailers around the world, provides an outlook for the global economy and an analysis of market capitalization in the retail industry.

It seemed like everything was going Target’s way after the company reported a 5.5% same-store sales increase during November, but then the revelation came last week of a 0.9% December comp increase and the wind came out of the company’s sales.

Dallas -- J. C. Penney Co. has named Michael Dastugue as executive VP and CFO. He served most recently as senior VP finance, and was responsible for directing the financial strategies of all J.C. Penney business units.

Dastugue succeeds Robert Cavanaugh, who will serve as an adviser to chairman and CEO Myron Ullman until his retirement in January 2012.