News

New York – Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has increased his investment holding in EBay Inc. In his regulatory filing for fourth quarter 2014, Icahn disclosed that he purchased about 446,000 shares of EBay.

Grapevine, Texas – Private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners has purchased specialty restaurant chain Cotton Patch Café, which operates 45 locations in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Kathy Nelson, CEO of Cotton Patch, participated in the investment and will continue in her role.

Altamont Capital also holds major investments in franchisees of the Taco Bell and Sonic Drive-In fast-food chains. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Chicago - Restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) has moved its 25-year-old loyalty program to the Paytronix Rewards platform. LEYE opted to switch because Paytronix offers mobile and data analytics capabilities to support its transition from a card-based to a mobile-based loyalty program.

San Jose, Calif. - Large format Hispanic grocery chain Mi Pueblo Foods is getting personal with customers on the go. Mi Pueblo is using the CLYP mobile marketing automation platform to establish deep consumer engagement, leading to more extensive insight into customers’ shopping behavior and buying patterns.

Alba, Italy - The Miroglio Group, an Italy-based international fashion retailer, has selected Zebra Technologies' wireless LAN solution to optimize information processes and transform them into a single omnichannel workflow. This selection was done as part of an overhaul plan that involved all the Italian companies in the Group: four buildings at its headquarters in Alba, its Milan offices and the entire store channel.

New York -- The consumer electronics and furniture sectors of the retail industry can look forward to growth in 2015, while the apparel sector faces a more mixed outlook. That was the message sounded by CIT Commercial Services executives during a roundtable discussion, "Everyone Looks Good in the Black: Retailers in the Economic Rebound,” part of the CIT Executive Insights series.

During the discussion, each CIT executive offered their views on the top trends they see ahead in various sectors of the retail market:

As America's obsession with craft beer shows no signs of losing steam, shoppers looking to fill their own growlers with upscale brews may not need to go farther than their local Albertsons supermarket.

The grocery chain is embracing the craft beer trend by adding growler stations to some of its stores. The company recently added a Growler Station Express to a store in Phoenix, Ariz., to satisfy area craft beer fans.

British supermarket giant Tesco has named John Allan as chairman, ending a four-month search after Richard Broadbent resigned amid an accounting scandal.

Allan, 66, will join the board and be appointed chairman on March 1, when Broadbent will step down from the board, Tesco said in a statement.

"I'm very pleased to be taking on this role at such a critical moment for the business and look forward to working with the new executive team and the board," Allan said.

Express Inc. is turning to Kate Upton again as an integral part of the company’s turnaround strategy.

The retailer, which has seen stunted growth in recent years, hired the trendy supermodel last fall, the company's first time featuring a celebrity in an ad campaign in over a decade. Now Upton is back for spring promotions.

Customer satisfaction with retail is on the decline for the first time in four years, according to a report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

The report says brick-and-mortar retail show weakening or flat customer satisfaction, while Internet retail is up from a year ago.