Supply Chain & Merchandising

Borderfree is a digital company focused on helping retailers sell to anyone anywhere and last Friday the company sold itself to investor’s by completing an initial public stock offering.

The company priced its offering of five million shares at $16 and enjoyed a 32% pop at the open when shares began trading at $21. The upward momentum proved to be unsustainable and by the close shares had receded to $20, registering a still respectable first day gain of 25%.

Bad weather and a tepid economy claimed another retail victim on Thursday as family footwear retailer Shoe Carnival posted weak sales and profits.

The operator of 379 stores said sales during its 13 week fourth quarter ended February 1 fell to $200.3 million compared to $205.7 million during the 14 week fourth quarter the prior year. Same store sales declined 2.5%. Profits during the period fell more sharply to $600,000, or three cents a share, from $3.2 million, or 13 cents a share the prior year, as gross margins contracted to 28.5% from 29.3%.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s Incorporated plans to open a store in Noblesville, Ind., serving the greater Indianapolis area. Construction is scheduled to begin later in 2014 and the store is expected to open in fall 2015.

The 80,000-sq.-ft. store will be located in the new Saxony Campus development adjacent to Hamilton Town Center. It will be Cabela’s second Indiana store, joining the Hammond location opened in 2007, and is expected to employ approximately 170 full-time and part-time employees.

Supervalu reduced its organizational structure from three divisions to two and name Kevin Kemp president of the east region and Bill Chew president of the west region.

The company did not indicate what roles Kemp and Chew played in the organization previously, but did note that the east region will be headquartered in Mechanicsville, VA and the west region will be based in Hopkins, MN near the company’s Eden Prairie headquarters.

Charlotte, N.C. – The Cato Corporation cited weather, holiday promotions and a 53rd week in fiscal 2012 as impacting its net income during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. The retailer also said it plans to open 64 new stores and close 17 existing stores during fiscal 2014.

Net income fell 52% to $3.8 million from $7.9 million in the same period the prior year, within previously announced guidance range, while sales dropped 7% to $215.2 million from $232 million.

Hearthside Food Solutions sold its 20 manufacturing plants and 150 brands to Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs and the private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners.

Eden Prairie, Minn. – Supervalu plans for a streamlined independent business organization. As part of the new structure, Supervalu’s independent business will consolidate from three regions to two regions, forming new East and West teams.

The new East and West independent business regions will be located in Mechanicsville, Va. and Hopkins, Minn. To lead the new organizations, Supervalu has named Kevin Kemp president of the East region and Bill Chew president of the West region.

New York -- Net-A-Porter.com topped all competitors across all retail verticals for customer service in February, according to Stella Benchmarks. The retailer was particularly strong in fulfillment, besting all other retailers in both shipping and returns.

Net-A-Porter.com provided a pre-paid, adhesive return label in all orders handled by StellaService analysts. In addition, Net-A-Porter.com issued refunds in less than a week on average.