Supply Chain & Merchandising

Tejon Ranch, Calif. — Swedish fashion retailer H&M has taken a 22,000-sq.-ft. space in the Outlets at Tejon, which is under construction along Interstate 5 in a trade area stretching from Northwest Los Angeles County to Bakersfield.

Established in 1947 in Sweden, H&M has 3,000 stores in 53 countries around the world.

Tejon Ranch Co. and The Rockefeller Group are developing the 320,000-sq.-ft outlet center.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot has named Michael A. Steele as VP, investor relations, effective immediately. Steele reports to Stephen E. Hare, executive VP and CFO.

Steele will develop and execute Office Depot’s investor relations strategy, serving as the primary interface for management with the financial community. He plans to relocate to the Office Depot corporate headquarters in Boca Raton in the coming months.

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian fashion retailer Marisa has selected a range of integrated Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimization solutions including Assortment Planning, Merchandise Financial Planning, Item Planning, Demand Forecasting, Size Profile Optimization, Clearance Optimization Engine and Allocation to assist the company in targeting assortments based on market opportunities and customer preferences.

New York – LLBean.com was ranked No. 1 in customer service among all major online retailers during the month of December 2013. According to the Stella Monthly Ranking from the StellaService customer service analysis firm, LLBean.com snared this honor for the second consecutive month.

Houston — Fuddruckers has opened its first Dominican Republic restaurant in Santo Domingo through a partnership with franchisee Eduardo J. Gadala-Maria and Giancarlo Bonarelli.

The 3,500-sq.-ft. unit opened in Galeria 360, one of several new shopping malls in the city. Galeria 360 features 120 stores and restaurants plus a large movie theater.

Minneapolis – Best Buy Co., Inc. saw its revenues for the nine-week holiday period ended Jan. 4, 2014 fall 2.5% from the same period a year earlier. Holiday revenues for the 2013 season were $11.45 billion, compared to $11.75 billion in the 2012 season.

Consolidated same-store sales only grew 0.1%, although online sales increased 23.5%. Best Buy cited a more intense than expected promotional pricing environment as a key factor in its disappointing holiday results.

Coty has announced that Brian Falcone will serve as SVP sales, overseeing all sales activities for Coty Beauty U.S. mass brands.

Falcone will be responsible for field sales, customer marketing, category management, wall strategy and fixture planning.