News

Framingham, Mass. – Staples has reached the milestone of having 500 buildings meet EPA Energy Star certification. The facilities include stores, distribution centers and sales offices nationwide. Staples also launched a goal to reach 1,000 Energy Star facilities by the end of 2016.

Knoxville, Tenn. – Ruby Tuesday is streamlining facilities management activities across its 750 U.S. stores with the Web-based facilities services management platform from ServiceChannel. The ServiceChannel suite will aid Ruby Tuesday in executing such tasks as management of service requests, work orders, invoicing, payment, finding and managing contractors, repair and maintenance, and other facility issues.

New York – Barnes & Noble is releasing an updated Nook App for Windows 8 with a new user interface, faster performance and features including highlighting, annotations, dictionary lookup, find in books, improved shop and search functionality, and the ability to sideload ePub and PDF files from local drives.

New York – Investment firm Starboard Value, a shareholder in Office Depot, is foregoing a preliminary consent solicitation it filed against Office Depot in April in light of an order by the Delaware Chauncery Court for Office Depot to hold its annual meeting. Starboard Value had been pressing Office Depot to hold its annual meeting and commenced a consent solicitation to remove several existing directors in favor of Starboard's nominees.

SEATTLE — Nordstrom has appointed Intuit president and CEO Brad Smith to the company’s board of directors. 

His addition brings the total number of directors to 12, 9 of whom serve as independent directors. Nordstrom directors serve one-year terms and the company requires annual elections of all board members.

Smith was named president and CEO of Intuit in January 2008, culminating a five-year rise through the company where he led several of its major businesses. 

American’s demand for guns outstripped supply during the fourth quarter at Smith & Wesson Holdings, where ramped-up production produced a 37.6% sales increase.

MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills saw growth for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year ended May 26, thanks to new product offerings as well as established product lines.

The company reported net sales of $17.8 billion for fiscal 2013, an increase of 7% from 16.7 billion in fiscal 2012. 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Stein Mart’s interim CEO Jay Stein has been named CEO. 

"It has been my pleasure to return and lead Stein Mart after nearly two years as interim CEO. Working side-by-side with our wonderful leadership team, we are now enjoying these great results," said Stein. "This is an important time in our company's history and I am very happy to be part of this great organization."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hallmark Cards has elected Claire Hughes Johnson, VP at Google to the company’s board of directors.

"Claire Hughes Johnson has broad experience in developing innovative new businesses and business models," said Hallmark vice chairman, president and CEO Donald J. Hall Jr. "Her knowledge of the rapidly changing digital space as well as her experience leading global business and product teams will help us as we consider new opportunities and develop strategic plans to expand our business."

DALLAS — 7-Eleven is looking to leverage social media this summer with a limited duration offer designed to generate traffic at the retailer’s more than 10,000 worldwide locations.

The announcement comes on the heels of Dunkin’ Donuts’ decision to focus more on its beverages and Starbucks’ announcement that it would be raising prices on select beverages.