News Briefs

VF Corp. has appointed a new leader of its struggling Vans brand.

The apparel and footwear giant, whose brands also include Timberland, The North Face and Dickies, named Michelle (“Sun”) Choe as global brand president, Vans, beginning in late July. Her appointment comes a week after VF reported its fourth-quarter results, which saw Vans revenue fall 26% compared to the year-ago period.

Choe joins Vans from Lululemon, where she spent seven years as chief product officer, overseeing women's, men's, accessories design, merchandising, innovation, product development, and planning and allocation. Choe resigned from Lululemon last week.

Prior to joining Lululemon in 2016, Choe was chief global product merchant at Marc Jacobs from 2015 to 2016. From 2013 to 2015, she was senior VP, merchandising at West Elm, and from 2011 to 2013, she was senior VP at Madewell. Before that, she held various positions at Urban Outfitters, Levi’s and Gap.  

“Sun is a strong leader who is focused on consumer insight and has a proven track record of driving brand heat, and translating it into financial results,” said  Bracken Darrell, president and CEO, VF. “I am confident that Sun is the right leader to take Vans to new heights. With Sun’s appointment, we are further transforming the VF leadership team to ignite growth across our brands and enhance value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.”

At Vans, Choe succeeds Kevin Bailey, who departed in October.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) dog supplies retailer Bark, Inc. has added a former leader to its C-suite.

Meghan Knoll will rejoin the company as chief direct-to-consumer officer, effective June 3, and will lead the company's DTC operations. She will report to Bark founder and CEO Matt Meeker.

Most recently, Knoll served as the CEO of Cat Person, a subscription-based cat food company backed by Harry’s Labs. Prior to that, she spent over seven years at Bark, where she held various roles, including general manager of Super Chewer, one of the brand’s subscription programs, and more recently, senior VP of DTC. Before her time at Bark, she held senior roles at Nickelodeon and Viacom.

“On behalf of the entire team, I am thrilled to welcome Meghan Knoll back to Bark,” said Meeker. “During her seven-year tenure with us, Meghan made significant contributions across the organization, including leading our Super Chewer product from inception to becoming our second-largest revenue generator. Meghan will rejoin us to drive accelerated growth of our DTC channel. Alongside Michael Black and Michael Parness, two recent leadership hires, I believe we have an exceptional commercial team poised to drive profitable, long-term revenue growth.”

Founded in 2011, Bark serves pet parents nationwide with themed toys and treats subscription programs, BarkBox and Bark Super Chewer, as well as custom product collections through its retail partner network, including Target and Amazon.

“The team has made impressive progress within the direct-to-consumer channel in the past 18 months,” said Knoll. “I am confident that we are primed to capitalize on that work and drive exceptional new customer experiences and sustainable long-term channel growth.”

Belk is growing its outlet location in its home state of North Carolina. 

The latest addition to the Belk Outlet lineup will open at the Northlake Mall in Charlotte, N.C. in September 2024.  The department store retailer will continue to operate its traditional store on the first level of the Northlake Mall, while work begins in June on transitioning the second level into a Belk Outlet. 

“Tjos concept allows customers to continue to shop for all their favorite products at the traditional store, while offering them a chance to hunt for other discounted high-end and designer national brand treasures at the outlet within the same building,” Belk stated.

The merchandise at Belk Outlets comes directly from traditional Belk stores, in addition to value fashion and home merchandise purchased specifically for the outlet locations.

Belk debuted its outlet format  in January 2023, converting its store in Greeneville, Tenn., into the first-ever Belk Outlet. It has since opened 16 additional locations. 

"We're excited to bring the Belk Outlet shopping experience to our hometown customers," said Don Hendricks, CEO of Belk. "This is a fantastic opportunity for customers to shop a large range of designer and high-end national brands at additional savings. Customers across our footprint are loving the Belk Outlet offerings, so we're looking forward to adding this new location."

Charlotte-based Belk has nearly 300 Belk stores in 16 Southeastern states. Last year, the company expanded national brand product offerings by adding over 180 new brands.

Women’s fashion brand Varley is entering the U.S. retail space with its first brick-and-mortar store.

Opening this fall, the 2,200-sq.-ft. Varley store will be located in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, marking a milestone as the brand’s first location outside of London. The assortment found at the new location will include Varley’s core collection, Varley Club and Varley Active.

“We are excited to be bringing Varley to life in the heart of New York City,” said Ben Mead, co-founder & CEO of Varley. “Our brand has a strong customer base in the US market, and we are looking forward to offering shoppers the opportunity to be physically immersed in the world of Varley.”

Founded in 2015 by Lara and Ben Mead, Varley has grown into an international family-run business with over 1000 wholesale partners worldwide, as well as offices in London, Los Angeles and New York. The brand operates two stores in London, the King's Road flagship and the recently opened location in Marylebone.

The brand says that each physical location aims to "create an immersive shopping experience, bringing consumers into the world of Varley, delivering elevated essentials for how the modern woman lives and moves."

Walmart’s hold on the grocery market continues to grow.

The retail giant captured 21.4% of grocery dollar share during the past year (4/1/2023 – 3/31/2024), up from 20.7% in the year-ago period (4/1/2022 - 3/31/2023) and 20% in the year before that (4/1/2021-3/31/2022), according to Numerator, which publishes the latest grocery market share data by retailer to understand where consumers are choosing to spend their grocery dollars. 

Kroger was a distant second, with an 8.8% share, down from 9.3% last year and 9.7% the year before that.

Costco Wholesale Corp. took third place, with an 8.2% share, up from 7.9% last year and 7.8% the year before.

Albertsons had a 5.4% market share, compared to 5.7% last year and 5.6% the year before that.

Sam’s Club took fifth place. The Walmart-owned membership warehouse club accounted for a 4.3% share, up from 4.2% last year and 4.1% the year before.

Academy Sports + Outdoors continues to expand into new markets. 

The full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer has opened its first store in Ohio. Located in Zanesville, the approximately 54,000-sq.-ft. store offers a wide assortment of athletic and casual shoes, sports and outdoors equipment, and clothing from both leading national brands and a portfolio of private label brands. 

The new location is the third store Academy has opened in 2024. The retailer plans to continue its expansion efforts with the goal of opening 15 to 17 stores in its fiscal 2024 year, with a total of 160 to 180 new stores over the next five years.

Featuring a localized merchandising strategy, Academy also offers free in-store services such as grill and bike assembly, scope mounting and line winding/spooling. Customers can also purchase hunting and fishing licenses in the store.

Academy operates 285 stores across 19 states.