Distribution

New York -- Coach Inc. posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, benefiting from strong sales and improved margins. The company also announced that its board of directors has voted to increase its cash dividend by 33%.

Net income for the third quarter ended on March 31 was a better-than-expected $225 million compared with $186 million a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 16.6% to $1.11 billion, just above analysts’ expectations. Same-store sales in the United States rose 6.7%.

New York -- Canada’s Jean Coutu Group has sold 56 million of its approximately 234.4 million shares in Rite Aid, the company said Friday.

The Canadian retailing group said the $83.6 million sale, which amounts to a 23.9%% reduction in the number of Rite Aid shares the company owns, would reduce its stake in Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid to 19.85%. The Jean Coutu group still owns about 178.4 million shares in the 4,667-store chain.

ORRVILLE, Ohio — J. M. Smucker has promoted one of its corporate officers.

The company said David Lemmon now would serve as VP and managing director of the company's Canada operations. Lemmon, who has been with the J. M. Smucker for 17 years, "has been instrumental in successfully implementing the company's growth strategy in Canada and helping the company achieve a leading market share position in several Canadian food and beverage categories," J. M. Smucker said.

Lemmon's promotion is effective May 1.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Women’s clothing retailer Chico’s FAS has chosen HP Performance Optimized Data Center (POD) technology as part of an HP Converged Infrastructure to increase productivity by providing employees at more than 600 stores nationwide with access to the company’s virtual private cloud.

By creating a scalable private cloud to meet the company’s need for expansion, Chico’s has improved operational efficiencies while also increasing agility, HP said.

New York -- Modell’s Sporting Goods announced that Daniel Sheehan joined the company as COO in April 2012. With over 27 years of management and information technology experience, Sheehan is responsible for store operations, distribution, loss prevention, e-commerce, information technology, visual merchandising and human resources.

West Bridgewater, Mass. -- Five Shaw’s Supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, have reached a major environmental milestone in the company’s “zero waste” program by diverting over 90% of all store waste from local landfills.

The environmental impact of the five stores has been significant:

New York -- Ann Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor and Loft, announced the launch of AnnCares360, a program in partnership with Good360, a nonprofit leader in product philanthropy. The program will facilitate the donation of available displays, marketing items, and fixtures to local charities that support women and children.

Landfill operators got some bad news this week when Walmart said it prevented 81% of waste generated by U.S. stores from going to landfills. That nugget is just one example of the progress Walmart has made on its broad sustainability agenda and was among numerous others contained in the company’s 5th annual Global Responsibility Report released this week.