Supply Chain & Merchandising

New York City -- The judge in the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case on Tuesday approved a $750 million exit financing plan for the supermarket operator.

The approval moves A&P closer toward exiting Chapter 11 and operating as a  privately held company.

The financing package consists of a $400 million revolving loan and a $350 million term loan from J.P. Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse.

Bensalem, Pa. -- Charming Shoppes has promoted Bryan Eshelman to executive VP, chief supply chain officer. Eshelman started with the chain in 2010 as senior VP operations.

Eshelman retains his previous duties of overseeing technology, logistics, technical design and quality assurance. His new responsibilities include directing the retailer’s global direct sourcing from buying offices in such locations as Hong Kong and India, and ensuring supply chain compliance with trade and customs regulations.

Roswell, Ga. -- On the heels of announcing its PGA Tour Superstore opening in Schaumburg, Ill., the company announced that Downers Grove will be the site for the second PGA Tour Superstore in the Chicago area.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores no longer is employing greeters during the overnight shift at its approximate 3,000 U.S. supercenters, Bloomberg reported.

For the past six months, the chain has been reassigning greeters at supercenters to other jobs, the report said.
 

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday opened its second supercenter and fifth location overall in Chicago.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hy-Vee has introduced a mobile application that it said could make locating pie crust in its stores as easy as saying "pie."

The supermarket chain announced the release of the app, which allows customers to locate products, browse ads, search for recipes, build shopping lists, shop and interact with the company through social media. The app is built on the AT&T Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform and uses Taqtile Mobility's Shingle solution.

London -- A report released Tuesday by Bloomberg said that U.K. clothing chain Bonmarche will close as many as 160 out of 390 stores after its owner Peacock Group sold the chain to an affiliate of Sun European Partners.

KPMG administrated the transaction; the new buyer said that about 2,400 of 3,800 jobs will be retained.

The report said that KPMG had been seeking a buyer for Bonmarche since being appointed earlier this month as administrator to Peacock, which also owns Peacock’s Stores Ltd., a U.K. discount apparel chain.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. announced Tuesday it has promoted current senior VP-finance John Mulligan to executive VP and CFO, effective April 1.

The announcement concludes a comprehensive search which included both internal and external candidates, said Target.

Mulligan succeeds Doug Scovanner, who announced his retirement last November.

A 16-year Target veteran, Mulligan has held leadership positions in finance, target.com and human resources.