Business Analytics

Plano, Texas – Pizza Hut Inc. is deploying energy management systems from Entouch Controls at 500 corporate stores. The company plans to recommend the Entouch technology to its 5,800 franchised stores, as well.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s Corp. had a relatively flat second quarter of fiscal 2014 compared to the same period the previous year. Net income slightly rose to $232 million from $231 million, while sales fell 1% to $4.24 billion from $4.28 billion.

Same-store sales dropped 1.1%, although Kohl’s said they turned positive in July. Kohl’s plans to open four new stores in fall 2014, including one store which was temporarily closed in the first quarter for a complete re-build.

Kohl’s exceeded analysts’ profit expectations in the second quarter, but it wasn’t due to top line strength and now the company has a lot riding on the back-to-school season.

Advance Auto Parts demonstrated strength in its second quarter performance in one of the retail industry’s hottest sectors.

Same store sales growth of 6% and e-commerce strength helped J.C. Penney dramatically reduce its second quarter operating loss and demonstrate growing momentum of its turnaround.

Sales at the operator of 1,060 stores increased to $2.8 billion from $2.66 billion and the 6% comp increase the company reported was against an easy prior year comparison when comps declined 11.5%. Online sales through jcp.com were $249 million for the quarter, up 16.7 % versus the same period last year.

Ralph Crabtree, CTO of Brickstream

Montreal – Canadian grocery retailer Metro Inc. reported medium results for its third quarter fiscal 2014. Net earnings for third quarter 2014 were $144.5 million, an increase of 0.1% from net earnings of $144.4 million for the same quarter of 2013.

With heavy investment in its Paint Studio and a corresponding media blitz to promote it, wholesale sales at Ace Hardware Corp. jumped double digits in the second quarter.

Macy’s tempered its full year sales forecast after solid second quarter results and growing optimism around omnichannel initiatives weren’t enough to offset a slow start to the year.

Macy’s said sales increased 3.3% to $6.267 billion and same store sales increased 4% during the second quarter ended August 2. Excluding sales in departments licensed to third parties same store sales increase 3.4%. Profits increased to $292 million, or 80 cents a share, from $281 million, or 72 cents a share.

San Jose, California – U.S. shopping trends showed some improvement in July 2014, although not all metrics experienced positive change, compared to the same month a year earlier. According to the RetailNext Insights Report of more than 13 million shopping trips in July 2014, sales per shopper increased 3.5% from July 2013.