Supply Chain & Merchandising

IRVING, Texas — The relationship between retailers and their suppliers are of paramount importance, and Michaels Stores marks that relationship every year at its annual partner conference, where the company recognizes its top partners at its Vendor and Supply Chain Partner of the Year Awards.

Michaels recognized the contributions of 12 vendor and supply chain partners to the retailer during the past year.

Webster, Texas -- Seattle-based Nordstrom will add a new Nordstrom Rack location in the Houston area, opening a 31,000-sq.-ft. store in spring 2015 at Baybrook Square in Webster, Texas.

The Baybrook Square Rack will be the fourth Houston-area off-price store for Nordstrom. In July the company announced plans to open a third Rack location at Willowbrook Mall in fall 2014.

The new Nordstrom Rack will move into a space currently occupied by DSW, which is relocating within the center. Baybrook Square is managed by Fidelis Realty Partners.

Specialty retailer Five Below is searching for a seasoned retail executive to fill the role of president to execute an aggressive growth strategy following the departure of chief operating officer David Johnston.

CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup Company has appointed Ed Carolan as president of U.S. retail and Tim Hassett as SVP and GM of Away from Home and as chief customer officer of Campbell North America. Both will report to Mark Alexander, president of Campbell North America.

New York -- Fashion presence Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. reported a first-quarter profit of $125 million, nearly double the $68.6 million profit of the year-ago period.

Revenue for the quarter ended June 29 soared 54% percent to $640.9 million, well above Wall Street’s expected $570.5 million. Same-store sales climbed 27.3%. In North America, which generates 86% of the company's business, same-store sales rose 25%.

Buoyed by strong sales and growing profitability, leading footwear retailer DSW Inc., preannounced second quarter sales and plans for a 2-for-1 stock split in advance of the release of second quarter results on August 27.

DSW’s sales for the second quarter ended August 3, increased 9% to $558 million from $512 million and same store sales increased 4.3% on top of a prior year gain of 4.2%. Those results prompted the operator of 377 stores to increase its full year profit forecast to a range of $3.60 to $3.80 per share from the previous range of $3.40 to $3.60 per share.

Naperville, Ill. – OfficeMax had a generally difficult second quarter of 2013, with declining total and same-store sales and a net loss. The retailer is also predicting more disappointing results for the upcoming two fiscal quarters.

In a recent interview, Walgreens’ CEO Greg Wasson spoke at length about the ways in which the drug store chain is evolving. I thought the interview (posted online under the title Walgreens gets a modern makeover), was fascinating, particularly where Wasson explained the company’s bold plans to “reimagine” its stores.