Sales & Marketing

Nashville, Tenn. – Genesco Inc. reported net earnings of $13.97 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, down 3% from $14.41 million in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. A jump in selling and administrative expenses drove the net earnings decline.

Meanwhile, net sales rose 6% to $629 million, from $591 million. Same-store sales grew 1%. Genesco expects a low-single-digit same-store sales increase for the full fiscal year.

Pure Leaf Iced Tea, a product from the Pepsi Lipton Tea partnership, is expanding its partnership with television personality Gail Simmons to support the brand's "Share the Love of Leaves" program.

Fans of the beverage can pitch in to make a difference in their communities, and up to $150,000 will be donated to Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit that focuses on making fresh and healthy food affordable and accessible to all people.

Columbus, Ohio – A subsidiary of Express Inc. has entered into a franchise agreement with Edcon Group, a retail franchise operator in South Africa, to bring the Express brand to South Africa. The Express brand is expected to launch as a store-in-store concept at select Edgars department stores by the end of 2014 with standalone Express store locations to open in 2015.

Express has identified international expansion as one of the company's four pillars of growth and a significant long-term revenue opportunity for the company.

Same-store sales declined again last year at Fairway Market and the company reported a record loss, but a new same-day delivery initiative with Google Express in Manhattan offers potential for omnichannel growth.
 

Dallas — SRS Real Estate Partners earned a silver U.S. MAXI Award at the Encore Hotel in Las Vegas during the ICSC RECon Convention. The awards are open to shopping centers, shopping center companies, specialty retailers, specialty leasing managers, marketing directors and general managers.

SRS received a silver Award in the B2B division of the Traditional Marketing category for its effective brand enhancement campaign.

Exiting Canada may have taken a bite out of Big Lots’ profits in the first quarter, but the company still saw net and comparable-store sales increase.

Net sales for the quarter increased 1.1% to $1.28 billion, compared to net sales from continuing U.S. operations of $1.26 billion for the same period last year. Comparable-store sales for stores open at least 15 months increased 0.9% for the quarter.

Atlanta -- Logility, a leading supplier of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain, announced its acquisition of privately held MID Retail, Inc., an Indianapolis-based provider of retail allocation and merchandise planning solutions.

Thought-provoking presentations and forward-looking exchanges dominated the annual gathering of the Global Retail Marketing Association’s (GMRA) Executive Leadership Forum at the Don Cesar resort on St. Petersburg Beach, Fla.