News

Memphis, Tenn. – Fred’s Inc. expects to report a net loss of $0.15 to $0.20 per share. The discount chain cited transitional costs associated with implementing its convenience center model, as well as vendor-related cost pressures on pharmacy, as driving the negative profit growth.

However, not all the financial news was bad for Fred’s in the second quarter. Compared to same period a year earlier, Fred’s total sales grew 2% to $490.6 million, from $482.2 million. Same-store sales declined 0.1% for the quarter.

New York – Ann Inc. expects to report a 2.3% decline in consolidated same-store sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Total company net sales are now expected to be $648 million.

Austin, Texas – Zales has the highest annual percentage rate (APR) on its private label card out of 61 U.S. retailers surveyed by CreditCards.com. According to the study, the retailers with the five highest maximum APRs are:

1. Zales, up to a 28.99% APR;
2. Office Depot Personal Credit, up to a 27.99% APR;
3. Staples Personal Account, up to a 27.99% APR;
4. My Best Buy, up to a 25.24% and 27.99% APR, depending on your credit score; and

St. Petersburg, Fla. – HSN Inc. (HSNi) missed Wall Street expectations for its net income in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. HSN reported net income of $40.9 million, a 5% drop from $43.3 million a year earlier.

Net sales rose 5% to $855.2 million, from $812.6 million. Mobile and digital sales growth helped drive the overall improvement in net sales. Promotions in the company’s Cornerstore business negatively impacted net income.

Seattle – Online specialty retailer Zulily beat Wall Street expectations by almost doubling its net earnings and sales in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the second quarter of the previous fiscal year. Net income rose 95% to $7.8 million from $4 million, while net sales increased 97% to $285 million.

Zulily attributed its overall strong performance to improved mobile sales, with mobile devices now accounting for 47% of North American sales, a growing customer base, and higher average order values.

Burlington, Mass. -- Demandware, a provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, announced that Tervis Tumbler Company selected the Demandware Commerce platform to enhance digital commerce operations, grow online revenue and expand internationally. Tervis signed with Demandware in second quarter 2014.

San Antonio, Texas - CST Brands Inc. has entered into definitive agreements to purchase 100% of the membership interests of Lehigh Gas GP LLC, the general partner of Lehigh Gas Partners LP, from Lehigh Gas Corporation.The aggregate consideration will be $17 million in cash and approximately two million CST shares.

New York -- Bindo, a retail technology company, is launching a mobile Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV)-compliant credit card reader for its cloud-based iPad point-of-sale (POS) system.

Bindo’s newly developed EMV reader has full end-to-end encryption with its iPad POS system and is both EMV Level 1 and Level 2 certified in the U.S.

Snyder’s-Lance is promising an innovation filled product pipeline for 2015 that includes meal-replacement snacks to drive growth for retailers following a pivotal second quarter for the company.