Sales & Marketing

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart and leading grocery suppliers, including Campbell's Soup, ConAgra Foods, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, General Mills, Kraft Foods Group, Kellogg Company, Mondelez International, Nestle USA, PepsiCo and Unilever, have joined forces to engage millions of customers and Walmart associates this spring and bring much needed food and funding to nonprofit organizations that work to fight hunger.

PHILADELPHIA — Walmart is adding Mini Melts ice cream automated kiosks to its stores.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to serve Walmart customers throughout the United States, by not only providing a premium ice cream product, but by doing so consistently with Walmart's low-price philosophy," said Dan Kilcoyne, president of Mini Melts USA.

OAK BROOK, Ill. — Ace Hardware has named long-time employee John Venhuizen as president and CEO of the nation’s largest hardware cooperative.

Venhuizen’s appointment to this role has been part of a strategic leadership transition that was announced last September. At that time, Venhuizen was named president and COO of Ace Hardware, while Ace’s outgoing leader, Ray Griffith, maintained the title of CEO.

Beaverton, Ore. -- Digimarc Corp. announced that Costco Wholesale Corp. is using the Digimarch Discover Intuitive Computing Platform (ICP) to embed transparent digital watermarks in editorial and advertising content connected with The Costco Connection starting with the April issue.

Albert Saltiel has joined AutoZone, the nation’s largest automotive retailer, as SVP of marketing and customer satisfaction.

Saltiel will report directly to AutoZone chairman, president and CEO Bill Rhodes.

"Al has spent many years working in both business to business and business to consumer environments," said Rhodes. "His experiences at Navistar, Sony and Ford are well suited for this position and we are excited to welcome Al to AutoZone."

Here’s an interesting take on pop-up stores by Felicity Pogson, associate design director, interiors, Dalziel & Pow, London:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Destination XL Group is engaging the service of CQuotient to create tailored email campaigns for its shoppers.

Cleveland -- American Greetings Corp. said Monday that the founding Weiss family has reached a deal to acquire the gift cards and party goods company for about $878 million.

The transaction is expected to close in July, and “returns the company to private ownership in a way that we believe enables the company to continue to serve the interests of its customers, employees, suppliers and the communities in which it operates as it has for over a century," said Jeffrey Weiss, president and COO.