Supply Chain & Merchandising

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola has seen strong progress toward its goal to place 5 million women entrepreneurs across the Coca-Cola value chain by 2020 and plans to expand its initiative.

Called the 5by20 initiative, the program launched originally in four pilot countries: Brazil, India, South Africa and the Philippines. Coca-Cola plans to broaden its scope to a total of 12 countries, adding China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Haiti, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and Thailand. By the end of 2012, 5by20 will reach 300,000 women.

New York -- Market share defensibility remains a key challenge for many traditional U.S. retailers, against a backdrop of minimal growth and heavy competition, according to a Fitch Ratings report. (Fitch views trends in market share as a key indicator of a company’s long-term financial outlook.)

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — Peter Longo of Macy’s has been appointed to the GS1 U.S. board of governors, the information standards organization announced today. GS1 U.S. develops supply-chain standards, solutions and services for more than 200,000 businesses in 25 industries.

By Randy Frischer and Patricia Brandstetter

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart U.S. reported Saturday that its Black Friday events were its “best ever,” and followed on the heels of what U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon described as an “impressive Thursday,” on which 22 million customers shopped U.S. Walmart stores.
 

Protests by organized labor failed to materialize in a meaningful way at Walmart stores over the weekend and the retailer went on to achieve record results.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss on Tuesday, but said it is on track to turn a profit again.

The jewelry retailer lost $28.3 million for the quarter that ended Oct. 31, compared to a year-ago loss of $31.9 million.

Revenue rose 1.8% to $357.5 million. Same store sales rose 3.9%. It was the chain’s eighth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales.

Purchase, N.Y. -- Spending in most of the key holiday categories, for the first two weeks of the retail month of November was down on a year-over-year basis, according to a SpendingPulse report released by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard. Apparel and luxury (excluding jewelry) were particularly hard hit, both showing year-over-year declines in the high 7% range.