Supply Chain & Merchandising

Increases in cost of sales, operating expenses and depreciation resulted in net income dropping at Kirkland’s Inc. during a generally disappointing first quarter of fiscal 2016.
 
The specialty home décor chain’s net income totaled $916 million, down 64% from $2.53 billion in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Net sales rose 10% to $129.91 million from $118.31 million, below expectations. Same-store sales edged up 0.5%.
 

Retail mergers have long been subject to scrutiny by the antitrust authorities at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But perhaps no two retail chains have found themselves more often in the FTC’s cross-hairs than the two largest office supply providers in the United States, Staples and Office Depot.   
     

Grocery giant Supervalu Inc. is one step closer to separating its troubled Save-A-Lot banner.
 
Supevalu, which initially announced it was exploring spinning off Save-A-Lot into a standalone, publicly traded company in July 2015, has completed the amendment of an existing $1.5 billion senior secured term loan agreement. This amendment permits the company and its subsidiaries to undertake certain transactions deemed necessary to enable a spinoff of Save-A-Lot.

Chain Store Age’s annual search for 10 retail real estate stars under the age of 40 years resulted in this: Ten youthful, creative, hard-charging industry executives.

Some are retailers, others are brokers or from shopping center companies. Three are women. One is under the age of 30. There’s a single Canadian in the bunch. Two work for CBRE. Each has studied the business, sought out mentors, and researched and taken on the issues of the day.

Amazon Marketplace sellers may want to run a little leaner this holiday season.

According to Re/Code, Amazon has notified merchants its third-party Marketplace platform will raise its warehouse storage fees during November and December 2016. The e-tail giant experienced profit-damaging storage space shortages during the 2015 holiday season and is trying to avoid a repeat of the problem.
 

Foot Locker Inc. saw net income reaching unprecedented levels during the first quarter of fiscal 2016, although sales growth missed Wall Street expectations.   Net income rose 4% to $191 million, from $184 million. Higher pretax income offset a slight increase in income tax expense, resulting in the profit boost. Sales also climbed 4% to $1.99 billion, from $1.92 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.9%.  

Big and tall men continued to spend in the first quarter, bucking slow apparel sales throughout the rest of the industry.   Destination XL Group Inc. posted revenue of $107.9 million in the quarter, up 3.3% from $104.4 million in the year-ago period. Total same-store sales rose 2%.  

Off-price retailer Century 21 will make its West Coast debut in a most unusual way — taking over a high-tech, high-touch “smart” store for six weeks.