Supply Chain & Merchandising

Phoenix — Vestar has appointed Clint Marchuk VP of acquisitions. His responsibilities include identifying, evaluating and carrying out shopping center acquisitions in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

Lifetime Brands, a leading global provider of branded kitchenware, tableware and other products used in the home, is seeing the results of its aggressive growth strategy — which included the acquisition of four businesses during the period — in the first quarter ended March 31.

Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $118.4 million, soaring 20% from $98.7 million for the corresponding period in 2013.

St. Louis - Build-A-Bear Workshop has reached an agreement with Horizon Toy Company of Turkey as a new international franchisee. The first Build-A-Bear Workshop store in Turkey is expected to open in Mall of Istanbul in June 2014.

With the store opening in Turkey, Build-A-Bear Workshop will now operate in 15 countries through franchisees. Those countries include Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Norway, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.

Minneapolis – Tile Shop Holdings Inc. reported net income of $3.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, a substantial improvement from a net loss of $44.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier. The retailer plans to open 20 new stores during fiscal 2014.

By Mike Gregory, Kurt Salmon

As consumers busy themselves with spring gardening and plans for summer travel, their favorite retailers are already planning for back-to-school and the 2014 holiday season. And after delivery delays during holiday 2013 left many customers fuming, a core issue for retailers is how to optimize their peak-season order fulfillment and related customer service.

Barely a week after leaving RadioShack, Troy Risch has landed on his feet at rival electronics retailer H.H. Gregg where he will serve as chief operating officer.

Risch will assume his new COO duties at H.H. Gregg May 5. He most recently served as EVP of store operations at RadioShack for 16 months, but left the company April 22. Assuming a leadership role at H.H. Gregg might seem like a potential violation of a non-compete agreement, closer inspection shows that H.H. Gregg and RadioShack don’t have that much in common from a product assortment standpoint.

Indianapolis – Hhgregg Inc. has hired Troy H. Risch as COO. Risch joins Hhgregg from RadioShack, where he served as executive VP of store operations.

Prior to this, Risch held a variety of operational leadership positions with Target Corp., including executive VP of stores. Risch will assume the COO position on May 5, 2014.

El Segundo, Calif. – Big 5 Sporting Goods experienced a 72% drop in net income during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, to $2.1 million from $7.5 million in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year. Expenses associated with the retailer’s new e-commerce platform affected its net income.