Supply Chain & Merchandising

San Francisco -- Gap announced Wednesday that it will open its first Gap store in Egypt this July, and its first Gap and Banana Republic stores in Morocco in October.

The move is part of the retailer’s global expansion strategy that calls for doubling its franchise stores to 400 by fiscal year 2014.

Gap started shipping to Egypt, Morocco and South Africa in 2010, but these stores are the first on the continent.

Family Dollar disappointed its investors this week with a third-quarter earning report in which gross margin pressures caused the company to report earnings per share of 91 cents that were four cents shy of analysts’ consensus estimates. The operator of 6,900 stores also said its 4.7% same-store sales increase was short of guidance of 5% to 7% and then used the occasion to lower fourth-quarter sales and earnings forecasts.

Strongsville, Ohio -- The IBM Retail User Group announced Thursday that drugstore retailer Duane Reade is the winner of its 2011 Retail Innovation Award.

The award, which was accepted by Richard Gilbert, director of store systems for Duane Reade, was presented at the User Group’s 34th annual conference in Orlando, Fla., in May.

The innovative solution provider Retail Tech jointly with RTC Group and Agilysys were also honored with the 2011 Retail Solution Innovation Award.

Dallas -- A survey released by Lucernex Technologies that polled the National Retail Tenants Association members about preparedness for the upcoming FASB changes found that, for the most part, retailers are generally not ready for the new rules to take effect.

In the NRTA membership survey “FASB Preparedness in the Retail Industry,” five key findings were revealed:

Latham, N.Y. -- Plug Power announced that it will supply 161 GenDrive fuel cells to Kroger’s food distribution center in Compton, Calif. Kroger will use the renewable energy source to power its fleet of electric lift trucks. Because GenDrive is fueled with hydrogen, the only byproducts created through the electrochemical energy-conversion process are heat and water.

AMSTERDAM — Ahold has tapped retail veteran James McCann to serve in the newly created role of chief commercial development officer.

Rochester, N.Y. -- Wegman’s Food Markets, said Thursday it has broken ground on a 123,070-sq.-ft. grocery supermarket in The Village at Valley Forge in King of Prussia, Pa.

A lease has also been signed for Next Door Bar & Grill, a restaurant concept owned by Wegman’s Food Markets for 12,000 sq. ft. on an adjacent parcel in the mixed-use development.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc. announced that it plans to open its first Gap store in Egypt this July and its first Gap and Banana Republic stores in Morocco this October. These store openings will mark the company’s first entry into Africa.

As part of an existing franchise agreement with The Fawaz Al Hokair Group, Gap will open its first Egyptian store in the Mall of Arabia in the capital city of Cairo. Two additional Gap stores will open at Cairo’s City Stars Mall and Sun City Mall this October.