News

By Jonathan Barsade, [email protected]

Perhaps no single brand had a holiday season quite as rocky as Sears. When the retailer announced a string of bad news on Jan. 9, shares of Sears Holding Corp. (which includes both Sears and Kmart) went through the floor. Holiday sales at Sears stores were down 9.2% in the nine weeks prior to Jan. 6, a brutal figure when you consider that overall retail sales were up slightly over the holidays (which I’ll discuss more in my next column).

Minneapolis – Target Corp. notified Canadian shoppers who visited U.S, Target stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013 that some of their personal data may have been compromised in the major data breach that hit the retailer. According to the Canadian Press, that information includes personal data such as names, addresses, emails and phone numbers, but not financial data.

New York -- Eminence Capital, which owns 4.9% of the common stock of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers and has been pushing for a deal between the retailer and rival Men’s Wearhouse, has nominated two industry veterans for election as directors to the board at Jos. A. Bank's annual meeting. The nominees include: Bruce J. Klatsky, former chairman of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, a position he held from 1994 until June 2007, and Norman S. Matthews, former president of Federated Department Stores and active and former board member of other retail and consumer companies.

Plano, Texas – PassBee Media is rolling out a new iBeacon location-based marketing solution. The application is aimed at allowing retailers to target indoor or in-store consumers for increasing foot traffic, engagement, and sales.

San Francisco - Shift Communications is now representing Whole Foods Market as its primary public relations agency in the Northern California region, which includes the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, San Jose and Reno.

Sean Mayo, former director of strategic partnerships for Simon Business Ventures, part of Simon Property Group’s (SPG) marketing and business development arm, has been promoted to regional director of marketing, east region of The Mills portfolio.  

Campbell Soup Company has named Dave Biegger as SVP of global supply chain, with responsibility for engineering, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, customer service, quality and facilities. The appointment is effective April 1.

Biegger succeeds David White, who will retire from the company after 10 years of service, the company said.

Walgreens is gearing up for the official grand re-opening of its newest 24/7 flagship store, located in Union Square, Manhattan. The store, which will open at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, originally opened in 2001 and has now been renovated to feature the new Well Experience format.