Supply Chain & Merchandising

Bangalore, India – Mobile cloud platform company MobStac has added a new set of mobile commerce features that are capable of providing consumers with a universal shopping experience across all devices. The MobStac platform now provides an extension for all major commerce backend systems such as Magento and OpenCart.

PetSmart CEO David Lenhardt was joined by Lt. Governor Jim Cawley of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Congressman Charlie Dent (PA-15) at the grand opening of PetSmart’s new distribution center (DC) in Berks County, Pa.

This DC will bring an estimated 500 jobs to Berks County by the end of 2016. The 870,000-sq.-ft. facility will serve 25% of PetSmart’s stores in 11 states, handling and delivering consumables, hard goods and fish to 170 PetSmart stores in 2014 and more than 260 stores by 2015.

Hampshire Group has promoted David Price to the role of chief operating officer. Price held the role of SVP of operations at Hampshire Group since 2012.

He will report to chairman and CEO Paul Buxbaum, and will oversee operations in all divisions of Hampshire Group.

“We are thrilled to promote David into the role of COO. David has been an integral part of the turnaround effort of Hampshire Group, and he will serve an even more important role in building the business going forward,” said Buxbaum.

Columbus, Ohio – Lane Bryant opens two new stores in Marlton, N.J., and Odessa, Texas on March 28. The New Jersey store is located at Willow Bridge Plaza and the Texas store is located at Chimney Rock.

Lane Bryant operates 775 stores nationwide and also operates an e-commerce site.

It’s onto the next step for Safeway and Albertsons. No additional bidders emerged during Safeway’s 21-day “go shop” period following Albertsons’ announcement of its intention to acquire the company.

Under the definitive merger agreement, Safeway and its representatives were permitted to solicit and engage in negotiations with respect to alternative acquisition proposals during the 21-day period that ended March 27.

Cortre Madera, Calif. – Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (RH) swung to a profit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 amid ongoing sales growth. The retailer posted net earnings of $26.64 million, compared to a net loss of $28.36 in the year-ago period.

Net revenues grew 18.5% to $471.69 million, from $398.05 million. Same-store sales grew 17%.

Oceanside, Calif. — Doerken Properties Inc. has acquired Flags on Mission Shopping Center in Oceanside, Calif., for $12.6 million. El Super grocery and dd’s Discounts anchor the 107,600-sq.-ft. property.

The Carlsbad, Calif., office of Lee & Associates brokered the transaction representing both the buyer and the seller, Mission Avenue Investors.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. retailers reportedly have $300 million in refunds with ocean freight vendors, yet they are unaware of this because of invoice errors by their ocean freight transportation providers. According to a report from ocean freight auditing service Ocean Audit, problems with infrastructure of ocean freight carriers are also part of the issue.