Retail

Hamilton, Bermuda -- Signet Jewelers Ltd. on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 30% surge in profit its fourth quarter.

New York -- Thor Equities has signed a contract to acquire a prime retail and office property at 102 Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris. “102 Avenue des Champs-Elysees is at the center of one of the most desirable locations in the world, just blocks from the Arc de Triomphe and Place Charles de Gaulle,” said Joseph Sitt, CEO of Thor Equities.  “We continue to believe strongly in the Paris retail market, in particular prime shopping and tourist destinations such as the Champs-Elysees and Boulevard Haussmann.”
 

New York -- Facebook hopes to transform the way  customers communicate with retailers by re-inventing the customer service platform. Facebook and its partner Zendesk, a customer service platform firm, are teaming up to allow businesses to provide scalable and responsive customer service to the more than 600 million people worldwide who use Facebook's popular Messenger app. The social media giant is inviting retailers and other companies to develop software that allows customers to communicate instantly with them through Messenger.

Philadelphia -- Five Below Inc. on Wednesday reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $33.3 million. It also confirmed plans to open 70 stores in 2015, up from 62 in 2014.

Net sales in the quarter, ended Jan. 31, increased by 24.4% to $263.8 million from $212.0 million the year-ago period. Same-store sales increased by 3.2%. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

For the year, the company reported profit of $48 million. Revenue was reported as $680.2 million.

Duluth, Ga. -- NCR Corp. announced that NCR Government Systems will modernize operations for the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). DeCA’s Enterprise Business Solution (EBS), built upon NCR’s software solutions, will help to transform DeCA’s mission-critical retail systems and provide industry-leading capabilities that optimize its operations from warehouse replenishment through to the point-of-sale, along with customer loyalty management and payment solutions.

Conshohocken, Pa. -- Ikea announced plans to install a fuel cell system at its location in Emeryville, California. Consistent with the retailer’s focus on emerging energy technologies, is the first Ikea in the world to convert biogas into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process. The fuel cell system will be installed, commissioned and activated by this summer, 2015.

Ikea contracted Bloom Energy, Sunnyvale, California, for the design, development and installation of the fuel system.

By Neil Axler

“You can’t get your nails done online, you can’t get dry cleaning done online and you can’t eat the Internet.” These are the dominant themes from retail clients (property owners) over the last few years. Today’s shopping center acquirers are looking for “necessity centers” with a stable rent roll. These centers consist of restaurants, nail salons and other destination retail that is not competing with e-commerce.

Nashville, Tenn. -- JLL announced the firm has been retained to manage One Hundred Oaks located in Nashville, Tennessee, on behalf of LaSalle Investment Management. The nearly 1 million-sq.-ft. medical mixed-use property sits on 54 acres, half of which houses the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The property’s retail tenant mix includes national, regional and local retailers, and is anchored by Regal Theatres, Burlington Coat Factory, Ross, TJ Maxx, Petsmart and Michaels.