Logistics

Walmart has opened its first supercenter in Canada’s eastern Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The retailer, which has operated in Canada for nearly two decades, plans to invest $90 million this year in the renovation and expansion of nine locations in New Brunswick and Novia Scotia.

By Greg Miller, CrossCom National

When an IT Manager at a retail company proposes to replace outdated technologies because of escalating maintenance costs, his Director may say, “Sorry, I need you to squeeze another year out of the system.”

But it’s not that easy.

The IT Manager doesn’t maintain an inventory of spare parts for the event of hardware failure. If a component needs replacement, he must buy a new one, or source from an aftermarket where prices are high and quality is suspect.

UPS reported second quarter results that were below the company's expectations as a result of disappointing performance in freight forwarding and a "slight miss" in International package.

ATLANTA — Leading supply chain commerce solutions provider Manhattan Associates reported total revenue of $102.5 million in the second quarter of 2013, compared to $93.6 million in the second quarter of 2012. 

License revenue was $16.1 million in the second quarter of 2013, compared to $15.3 million in the second quarter of 2012. 

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Spartan Stores and Nash Finch Company on Monday announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Spartan Stores and Nash Finch will combine in an all-stock merger valued at approximately $1.3 billion, including existing net debt at each company.

Nash Finch, which had revenues of about $4.8 billion last year, will become a subsidiary of Spartan Stores, which had revenues of $2.6 billion.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The competitive prospects of Spartan Stores and Nash Finch improved considerably on Monday when the two companies agreed to merge and create an enterprise with 177 stores, 22 distribution centers and annual sales of roughly $7.5 billion.

San Francisco -- Although most of the 16 electronics retailers scored by the Electronics TakeBack Coalition received an “F” grade, three companies – Staples, Best Buy and Office Depot – were deemed to have effective recycling programs.

More than half of the retailers failed the Coalition’s assessment, including Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Sam’s Club and Sears.

New York -- Real estate investment trust W.P. Carey has acquired a Hennes & Mauritz logistics center in Poznan, Poland.

W.P. Carey, through one of its affiliates, purchased the 896,911-sq.-ft. facility for $85 million.

The center, which supplies all of H&M’s Eastern European stores as well as serves as its primary European e-commerce logistics hub, will be leased back to H&M.