Business Analytics

The resignation of two top executives at Walmart China earlier this week initially seemed a rather stunning development given China’s importance to Walmart’s future and the fact that the company just held an analysts meeting in Shenzhen in late March. However, Walmart is now looking to capitalize on compelling growth prospects in the world’s second largest economy without the services of CFO Roland Lawrence and COO Rob Cissell. Walmart announced their simultaneous departure, but did not identify replacements.

Columbus, Ohio — Big Lots on Thursday trimmed its expectations for the year amid a fall in first-quarter earnings. In a separate statement, Big Lots said it signed an agreement to buy the Canadian closeout retail chain Liquidation World.

Based in Brantford, Ontario, Liquidation World operates 92 stores in Canada. It is Big Lots’ first expansion outside of the United States

Big Lots posted earnings of $52.5 million for the period ended April 30, compared with $55.9 million a year earlier.

St. Louis — Brown Shoe Company Inc., which operates Famous Footwear stores, said Wednesday that its first-quarter earnings tumbled, despite rising revenue caused by higher costs.

The company earned $3.7 million, compared with year-ago earnings of $10 million. Excluding special charges for restructuring and other items, the company earned $7 million.

Revenue rose to $624.6 million from $597.7 million a year earlier. Revenue declined at the company's Famous Footwear and specialty retail operations, but wholesale revenue jumped 27%.

Birmingham, Ala. — Books-A-Million Inc. on Tuesday reported a first-quarter loss as revenue fell 11.1% in the face of growing competition from digital books. The chain posted a first-quarter loss of $3.5 million, compared with net income of $2 million.

Quarterly revenue dropped to $104 million from $117 million, a year earlier. Same-store sales fell 13.2%.

Topeka, Kan. — Collective Brands reported that first-quarter 2011 net earnings were $26.4 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with $54.2 million, or 83 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2010.

The company reported that net sales decreased 1.1% to $869 million. Same-store sales were down 7.4%. 

Dallas — Zale Corp. said its net loss shrank in its most recent quarter and posted a double-digit revenue gain despite increasing costs for gold, silver and diamonds. The company posted a net loss for the three months that ended on April 30 of $9 million, compared to $12.1 million in its fiscal third quarter last year. Analysts had expected a far deeper loss.

Overall revenue rose 14.5% in the three months that ended on April 30 to $411.8 million, from $359.8 million last year. Analysts had expected $392 million. Same-store sales in the quarter were up 15.2%.

NEW YORK — Royal Ahold executive Kimberly Ross is joining beauty company Avon as EVP and CFO, reporting to Andrea Jung, Avon's chairman and CEO.

Ross currently is EVP and CFO and a member of the executive board of Royal Ahold N.V., a Netherlands-based international group, with more than 2,970 stores and supermarkets spanning Europe and the United States.

Anaheim, Calif. — Pacific Sunwear of California announced that net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 were $186 million, a decrease of 2% from net sales of $190 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2010. Total company same-store sales increased 1% during the first quarter of fiscal 2011.

The company reported a net loss of $31 million, or 48 cents per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to a net loss of $31 million, or 47 cents per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2010.