Supply Chain & Merchandising

Chicago -- Jones Lang LaSalle said Friday that Cedric Thurman has joined the firm’s Corporate Retail Solutions practice. As senior VP, Thurman will focus on enhancing the firm’s ability to deliver profit-enhancing strategies to meet the retail industry’s growing demand for strategic outsourced real estate services.

Thurman is based out of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Chicago office, reporting to Lew Kornberg, managing director, Corporate Retail Solutions.

New York City -- A Manhattan bankruptcy judge on Thursday has cleared the path for Blockbuster to sell itself to a group of hedge funds, preventing the movie rental chain from having to liquidate its assets.

Judge Burton R. Lifland has approved procedures for the auction of Blockbuster, with a $290 million initial offer from a group of senior bondholders led by hedge fund Monarch Alternative Capital.
 

SALISBURY, N.C. — Delhaize America is emphasizing its private-brand assortments, the supermarket conglomerate reported in its earnings release.

Delhaize said it forged ahead with its New Game Plan, which includes "important price investments," and noted that its U.S. operating companies — which include such banners as Food Lion, Bottom Dollar and Hannaford — are reinforcing their private-brand assortments through the introduction of a new value line called My Essentials.

New York — Ann Taylor Stores Corp. On Friday posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit on improved sales. The company, which said it will change its corporate name to Ann Inc. to better reflect its multichannel focus, also forecast strong first-quarter sales.

Product assortments have been restored, feature displays are back in most store aisles, and now Walmart is looking to restore sales growth with a new ad campaign beginning next month that reacquaints shoppers with the company’s core value proposition.

Tarrytown, N.Y.-based DLC Management Corp. has launched the redevelopment of Wing Park Shopping Center in Elgin, Ill.

DLC has pre-leased the redevelopment to a pair of anchor tenants: Walgreens has signed a 75-year lease for a 14,820-sq.-ft. prototypical store with drive-through that will be built to suit, and the existing Family Dollar will be relocating and expanding into an 8,400-sq.-ft. space. The overall redevelopment is 80% pre-leased.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar will cut more than 100 jobs as part of a companywide restructuring. The cuts will occur in all divisions of the company, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. 

In a memo to employees, the company said the cuts will allow Family Dollar to make decisions more quickly and move faster to achieve its goals, according to the report.

The retailer is slated to open 300 stores in fiscal 2011, which began in September. It will renovate as many as 800 stores.

Birmingham, Ala. — Hibbett Sports Inc. said Friday that its fiscal fourth-quarter net income climbed 6% on higher sales. The sporting goods retailer also predicts its fiscal 2012 earnings will be in line with Wall Street's view.

Hibbett Sports reported net income of $12.5 million for the period ended Jan. 29, up from $11.8 million a year earlier, better than Wall Street expected.

Revenue rose 4% to $173.2 million from $166.8 million, but fell short of Wall Street's estimate of $174.2 million. Same-store sales rose 1.2%.