Supply Chain & Merchandising

Outdoor retailer REI reached new heights in 2014 thanks to unprecedented membership growth which fueled a 4.2% same store sales increase and a record financial performance.

The same store sales increased and addition of seven new stores helped the company increase total sales 9.9% to $2.2 billion. The company ended the year with 5.5 million active members, 945,000 of whom joined the retail cooperative in 2014.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian mass merchandise retailer Etilux has selected the HighJump Warehouse Advantage warehouse management system (WMS) for its diverse supply chain needs. Etilux worked with Otimis, HighJump’s partner in Brazil, to select HighJump Warehouse Advantage.

New York -- Fresh & Easy plans to close 55 stores, which would leave the chain with about 110 locations, the Orange Country Register reported. Fresh & Easy is owned by the Yucaipa Cos., which bought the supermarket chain out of bankruptcy in 2013 from U.K. retailer Tesco. It operates stores in Nevada, California and Arizona.

The stores slated for closing do not meet Fresh & Easy’s new model of “modern convenience.”

Framingham, Mass. - A six-sigma green belt, Victoria Brown joins IDC Retail Insights  as senior research analyst, retail supply chain.  In this new role, Brown will spearhead the supply chain research program.

She will be covering topics such as inventory management, warehouse management, logistics and omnichannel distributed order orchestration. Most recently, Brown served as a supply chain leader, overseeing load balance and tracking distribution channels for the third-largest plant in Frito Lay North America.  
 

Chapel Hill, N.C. - Kirkland's Home has overhauled its planning architecture and strategy with a customized, automated assortment planning solution based on Oracle technology. Replacing a previous manual planning system, Oracle implementer Veltio configured the Kirkland's assortment planning solution to address the retailer’s specific challenges.  

Seattle – Starbucks Corp. tackled a wide range of global responsibility projects in 2014, including the ongoing minimization of its environment footprint. In its annual 2014 Global Responsibility Report, the coffee giant noted that it opened its 500th LEED-certified store in 2014, and that 98% of company-operated new stores opened in the United States in 2014 were built to LEED standards. Globally, the percentage stands at 64%.

The 330-unit specialty retailer Kirkland’s is looking to grow sales following a dramatic upgrade to its assortment planning process.

The company switched from a manual system running on Microsoft Excel to Oracle’s portfolio of assortment, financial, location and item planning solutions. Kirkland’s work with Veltio, the leading consultancy in the design, implementation and tuning of Oracle planning and optimization solutions for the retail industry.

New York – The elimination of a one-time adverse legal ruling helped Tiffany & Co. swing from loss to profit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, but a strengthening dollar hurt overall sales. Tiffany reported net earnings of $196 million, compared to a net loss of $104 million the same period a year earlier.

However, worldwide net sales of $1.28 billion were down 1% from $1.3 billion, with the stronger U.S. dollar negatively impacting foreign sales results. Same-store sales dropped 4%.