Supply Chain & Merchandising

Springfield, N.J. -- Village Super Market reported Thursday that net income for the third quarter dropped 68% to $1.7 million, primarily due to a $4.2 million charge for the withdrawal liability from a multi-employer pension plan.

Sales grew 5.2% to $316.2 million. Same-store sales increased 4.8%.

Hartford, Conn. -- FM Facility Maintenance, a leading provider of facility management for clients with multisite restaurant and retail locations,  announced that it has acquired the assets and certain liabilities of US Signs. With this acquisition, FM Facility Maintenance strengthens its position as a service provider of facility maintenance services to customers with a national footprint.

San Francisco -- At an investor conference on Thursday, Gap CEO Glenn Murphy announced the company will close 200 of its 900 U.S. namesake stores even as it expands its outlet presence.

While the company did not identify which stores will close, Gap said the 200 Gap brand closures over the next two years will be accompanied by a push to expand its Gap Outlet and Banana Republic factory chains.

With a topic of “Building stronger relationships with Walmart,” the room should be packed with suppliers next week when Walmart SVP Laura Phillips takes the stage at the Doing Business in Bentonville speaker series. The event will be held from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ark. Click here for more information.

New York City -- NCR is adding 800 Blockbuster Express kiosks to Food Lion grocery stores despite litigation over the Blockbuster Express trademark with Blockbuster and Dish Network Corp., which bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy in late April.

The kiosks will be added to Food Lions across the mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S. regions.

Target ended its last fiscal year with sales of $67.4 billion and earnings per share of $4, but if company chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel has his way, within six or seven years earnings per share will double to $8 and sales will top $100 billion.

Norwalk, Conn. -- Retail chief financial officers (CFOs) of U.S. middle-market companies are becoming more optimistic concerning the state of the industry, according to the latest GE Capital survey of  retail CFOs of companies with revenues ranging from $50 million to $1 billion.

New York City -- Cushman & Wakefield announced that Anthropologie will replace the Lowes movie theater on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and 71st Street, in Manhattan.

The theater, which had occupied the space for 50 years, closed at the end of 2010.

The apparel retailer, which has three other locations in New York City (50 Rockefeller Plaza, 85 Fifth Avenue and 375 West Broadway) will occupy approximately 15,000 sq. ft., combining the ground floor and lower level.