Data & Analytics

J.C. Penney has a new finance chief.   The department store retailer named Jeffrey Davis as executive VP and CFO. Davis will report to Marvin R. Ellison, Penney’s chairman and chief executive officer.   

A casual clothing and workwear retailer has ended its hunt for a new finance chief.   Duluth Holdings has appointed Dave Loretta as senior VP and CFO. Loretta will succeed retiring CFO Mark DeOrio.   Prior to joining Duluth Trading, Loretta launched and operated his own company, Pacific Time, LLC, a unique food and beverage business, from 2014 to 2016. Prior to managing his own firm, Loretta held various roles at Nordstrom.  

Walmart is stepping up efforts to drive energy efficiency across its distribution network.   The discount giant is adopting fuel cells and hydrogen stations from provider Power Plug — a move that will bolster its energy efficiency at up to 30 more locations. Walmart already has Plug Power fuel cells installed at 22 distribution centers, according to USA Today.  

The recipe for success in food retail is changing at breakneck speed. Economic drivers, such as commodity deflation, make revenue growth difficult. At the same time, demographic trends – including the rise of both millennials and centennials – undermine tried-and-tested business models. And now they are faced with the game changing move by Amazon with its planned acquisition of Whole Foods.  

Consumers across the globe agree that volume of criminals trying to steal their credit and debit card data is increasing — and retailers aren’t equipped to fight back.   This was according to “Consumer Payment Card Data Security Perceptions, from Transaction Network Services (TNS). The study interviewed 1,037 U.S. adults, 1,002 Australian adults, and 1,010 U.K. adults between May 4-May 8.  

Amazon is working with government officials to head off a lengthy deal investigation.   Amazon will re-file documents this week seeking government approval of its planned purchase of Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. The move will restart the process, giving U.S. antitrust enforcers more time to complete an early review of the retailers’ planned tie-up, according to the Wall Street Journal.  

Strong performance across its largest global brands, digital and international divisions lifted VF Corp.'s profits in the second quarter.    For the quarter ended July 1, VF Corp.’s revenue increased 2% to $2.4 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.289 million. While earnings per share dropped 11% to 29 cents, this still beat analyst expectations of 28 cents.   The company’s direct-to-consumer division’s revenue increased 13%. Digital revenue jumped by 34%.

Customers that shop at both Amazon and Whole Foods Market are the most upbeat about the online giant’s purchase of the natural foods grocer.   This was according to a new GfK report that was conducted among 1,000 US adults (ages 18 and above) using KnowledgePanel, the company’s probability-based online panel that represents the adult U.S. population. Responses were collected from June 23-26.