Logistics

Salt Lake City -- Overstock.com said Friday it has named Stormy Simon and David Nielsen as co-presidents of the company.

Simon was previously SVP over customer and partner care and, with the promotion, will add oversight of warehouse logistics, press relations, social media and strategic marketing.  
 
Nielsen, promoted from SVP merchandising and supply chain, will add oversight of international sales, talent management and information technology.

New York -- On the heels of a strong performance in 2012 that included a 7.3% same-store sales increase, Nordstrom Inc. is investing heavily in its future. Two big areas of investment: online and expansion of the Nordstrom Rack outlet division, both in the United States and in Canada.
 
“Rack, direct and Canada will make up approximately half of our sales in the next five years,” Blake Nordstrom, president, Nordstrom Inc., said during the company’s quarterly conference call.  
   

New York -- A&G Realty Partners said Tuesday it has been retained by Bakers Footwear Group Inc. to handle the liquidation of its remaining 56 mall stores.

According to A&G, an auction for the store leases is slated for Feb. 18, with a deadline to submit bids to A&G Realty by Feb. 21.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. -- Wireless solution provider I.D. Systems said Tuesday it has received a series of purchase orders from Walgreens for the latest generation of its PowerFleet wireless Vehicle Management System, to be deployed on hundreds of material handling vehicles across multiple Walgreens distribution centers.

Walgreens originally implemented I.D. Systems' wireless technology in 2003 and is systematically upgrading more than a dozen of its facilities to the current generation of PowerFleet VMS.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Friday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates estimated that retail imports will increase 8.5% in February, after a contract deal between the East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers is finalized.

The monthly Global Port Tracker report said that, had a key West Coast agreement also been settled, import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports would possibly have seen an additional rise.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation expressed disappointment on Friday over the failure of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's Local 63 Office Clerical Unit and the Harbor Employers Association to reach a contract agreement.

An eight-day strike in November and December 2012 shut down most terminals at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach before the parties agreed on a tentative new contract with the help of a federal mediator. But union members on Wednesday voted down the contract.

New York -- Supply chain solution-provider DeSL said Thursday that Men’s Warehouse is embarking on a phase 2 project that expands its PLM application usage to implement the DeSL full supply chain solution.

"Now that we have implemented DeSL's PLM solution we have full control of our product development, are sharing on-line tech packs with our vendors along with time and action calendars and collaborative costing, the natural extension was to go to full supply chain management,” said Will Silveria , executive EVP , Men's Wearhouse.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. has named Stephen Szilagyi to the post of supply chain executive, reporting to Rick Damron, COO.

In his new role, Szilagyi will oversee Lowe’s logistics and distribution network that expedites the replenishment of merchandise and supplies to all Lowe’s stores.

Szilagyi has more than 25 years of supply chain experience, including leadership roles prior to Lowe’s in wholesale distribution and retail/consumer products supply chain consulting services.