News

New York -- Publix Super Markets is interested in Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Bloomberg reported.

Royal Ahold, the Netherlands-based company that operates Stop & Shop, is also looking to making a bid for the North Carolina-based chain, according to various media reports.

Harris Teeter released a statement on Feb. 13 in which it said it hired JPMorgan to assist in holding talks with suitors after being approached by two buyout firms.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. said that its loss narrowed in the fourth quarter, helped by improved U.S. sales. In a separate release, the company said that the deadline passed without it having received an acquisition offer from its co-founder, Richard Schulze, who had been considering making a bid for the chain.

“The company received no such offer and will continue to focus on its transformation for the benefit of all of its stakeholders,” Best Buy said in a statement.

Sixty percent of retailers with at least two years of negative comps turn them positive.

Here’s how. 

Two years of deep same-store sales declines can easily feel like a death sentence for most retailers. However, the data suggests it is indeed far from that. 

We analyzed all specialty retailers with sufficient public data over the last 20 years—nearly 70 retailers—and found that the majority of retailers who substantially underperformed the market ended up turning their comps positive in relatively short order. 

NEW YORK — Energizer is set to launch a new portfolio of lighting products this spring, the New York Times "Gadgetwise" blog reported today. The new line is expected to hit Target shelves in late March, followed by other mass merchandisers later on.

Stanley Black & Decker said it completed its acquisition of Infastech, a global manufacturer and distributor of specialty engineered fastening technologies.

Stanley paid $850 million in cash for the Hong Kong-based company. The transaction was originally announced on July 2, 2012. 

Infastech’s annual revenues are about $580 million. 

LOS ANGELES — Sport Chalet, a sporting goods chain operating mostly on the west coast, has expanded its online assortment.

Sport Chalet customers now have the opportunity to buy expanded offerings of bikes, fitness equipment, and snow sports apparel and hardgoods online at www.sportchalet.com and have their order seamlessly fulfilled by the vendor. The company expects to continue to grow the assortment of vendors and product categories using this new drop ship functionality.

Fourth quarter operating profits at Sear’s Holdings on an adjusted basis improved. 22% and same store sales at Sears flagship stores turned modestly positive.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s Corporation reported fourth quarter diluted earnings per share of $1.66 compared with $1.81 for the fourth quarter of 2011. Net income for the fourth quarter was $378 million compared with $455 million a year ago. For the year, net income was $1 billion ($4.17 per diluted share) compared with $1.2 billion ($4.30 per diluted share) for fiscal 2011.

Total sales for the quarter were $6.3 billion, an increase of 5.4% over sales of $6 billion for the same period last year. Same-store sales for the quarter were up 1.9%.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Coinstar, a self-service coin-counting machine operator, has added a new feature that enables consumers to conveniently and securely add coins and paper currency into or withdraw funds from their PayPal account, as well as send money to another PayPal account. The rollout began this month in Texas, Northern California and Ohio and will continue at select kiosks throughout the year.  

NEW YORK — Luxury fashion house J. Mendel has announced that Susan Sokol will step down as president and COO of the company, and will transition her duties over the coming weeks.

Sokol joined J. Mendel as president and COO in 2008. During her almost five year tenure at the company, Sokol was integral to the expansion of J. Mendel's ready-to-wear, which now accounts for 60% of its wholesale business, and to entering the brand into new international markets.