Supply Chain & Merchandising

As always, it seems to have blurred by before it even started, but NRF 2016 is over. As the retail industry collectively unpacks it bags, sorts through business cards and decompresses, I’d like to offer a few key trends I observed during my own three days of Big Show immersion.

Boston -- The Wilder Companies announced that Shelley M. Anderson has been named director of new business development, a newly created position for the company. Anderson will be responsible for developing retail real estate opportunities to expand the company’s portfolio of open-air centers throughout the eastern portion of the U.S. She will focus on existing center acquisitions, exploring joint venture opportunities with existing owners and growing the company’s burgeoning third-party services business.

Ahold USA on Wednesday announced net sales of $26.4 billion for the full year of 2015, an increase of 1.4%.

Ahold USA successfully converted the 25 acquired former A&P stores during the quarter. Identical sales excluding gas were up 1.6%, positively affected by competitor store closures in the New York Metro market. Market share for the fourth quarter and full year increased compared to last year, as the chain added a net 20 stores in 2015 to 788 locations.

Staples is giving itself three more months before calling off its proposed $6.3 billion acquisition of Office Depot, giving the companies time to fight an antitrust lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission.

Citing a Virtual Builders Exchange report, the San Antonio Business Journal last week reported H-E-B would be opening a pureplay convenience store operation with plans to construct a 7,500-square-foot convenience and fuel center. "The convenience store market in San Antonio has become increasingly competitive over the past few years, made even more so with local CST Brands agressive expansion plans," the business journal reported.

Acosta, a leading full-service sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry, on Tuesday named Tom Corley COO.

He will be responsible for overseeing the sales and foodservice divisions and will work to deepen consumer packaged goods clients and customer relationships, identify retail operating strategies and develop a differentiated sales organization.

Marsh on Tuesday affirmed its commitment to the Bloomington, Indiana market and the company's two other Bloomington stores, 1825 Kinser Pike and 123 South Kingston Drive, following the closure of its location at 3600 West Third Street.

The Kinser Pike store will begin an extensive remodel immediately, Marsh reported, along with the copmany's Teal Road store in Lafayette, Indiana. Other recent remodels include Marsh's Kingston Drive store in Bloomington, as well as its Salisbury Street location in West Lafayette.

The Golub Corp., operators of the Price Chopper grocery store chain, named Scott Grimmett as president and CEO. Grimmett, who has been part of the family-owned company’s succession plan since joining Golub in January 2012 as executive VP and COO, is the first non-family member to head up the chain. He replaces Jerry Golub, who has been appointed vice chairman of the board