Large Chains

Whole Foods Market said total sales for the first quarter ended Jan. 19 climbed 10% to a record $4.2 billion. But those results reportedly missed analysts’ expectations, and the company has lowered its earnings outlook for 2014 as a result.

Momentum at Whole Foods — as well as shares — slipped. Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 5.4%, compared to a 7.2% increase in the prior year.

San Bernadino, Calif. – Stater Bros. Holdings Inc. reported a substantial increase in net income, for the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Net income more than doubled to $11.1 million from $5.4 million in the same period a year earlier. Net sales rose almost 2% to $984 million, to $968.7 million.  

Same-store sales grew 1.4%. Jack H. Brown, chairman, president and CEO of Stater Bros., credited the supermarket retailer’s maintaining of a low-price market strategy during difficult economic times with boosting financial performance.

San Bernardino, Calif. -- Stater Bros. Markets has appointed Michael Reed to the position of senior director real estate.

Reed has over 13 years of retail real estate experience and has held various leadership positions with other retailers. He most recently served as real estate store development manager for Starbucks and was responsible for growing the company’s Mid-West and Western Mountain Regions.  

Austin, Texas - Whole Foods Market will offer new payment and checkout features from digital payment provider Square that allow customers to make purchases at food venues within select Whole Foods Market stores. These in-store venues, including sandwich counters, juice and coffee bars, pizzerias, and beer and wine bars, will use the Square Register and Square Stand solutions.

Stater Bros. has named Michael Reed as the company’s senior director of real estate.

"We have great confidence that Michael will do an outstanding job of leading our real estate division," said chairman and CEO Jack H. Brown. "His management and real estate expertise will help Stater Bros. meet our present and future real estate needs."

Mount Laurel, N.J. -- Agilence, a provider of cloud-based exception reporting solutions, announced that Redner's Markets has deployed Agilence’s Retail 20/20 to reduce shrink and improve in-store operations. The solution will also be utilized to provide visibility into daily store processes to increase efficiency and reduce fraud. Based in Reading, Redner's Markets is an employee-owned, regional supermarket chain with 44 warehouse markets and 18 quick shops throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

Milwaukee -- Roundy’s, Inc. has set the pricing of an underwritten public offering of about 8.8 million shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $7 per share. The company is offering 2.9 million shares of its common stock, and certain selling stockholders are offering 5.9 million shares of Roundy’s common stock.

Charlotte, N.C. — Havertys Furniture has leased a 45,000-sq.-ft. location in Glensford Commons in Fayetteville, N.C. The Charlotte office of Divaris Real Estate represented Havertys Furniture in the lease negotiations.

Other leases completed by Divaris in the Carolinas include a 3,600-sq.-ft. location for Firsthealth of the Carolinas in Carthage, N.C. Divaris handled the lease negotiations on behalf of the landlord, Food Lion.
 

Walmart is marking the 20th anniversary of its entry into Canada this year by spending big bucks to expand physical stores and distribution capacity while devoting a much smaller portion of a $500 million budget to e-commerce.

Walmart said it would spend close to $500 million in Canada this year with $376 million of that amount dedicated to 35 supercenter projects totaling one million square feet of new selling space. Walmart currently operates 389 stores in Canada, of which 247 are supercenters. By year end it expects to have 395 stores of which 282 will be supercenters.

Rick Herring, president of Ahold USA’s Giant Carlisle Division, plans to retire, effective Feb. 14.

Herring has been at Ahold for nearly 25 years and the company credits him with having made many contributions to the organization.

“We would like to thank Rick for his numerous contributions to our companies, as well as for his leadership, dedication and years of service," stated James McCann, Ahold USA COO. "We wish him all the best in this next phase of his life and career.”