News

NEW YORK — Sun Products' All Mighty Pacs laundry packs, Aquafresh Extreme Clean Pure Breath Action Paste, M&M's Brand Snack Mix, Reckitt Benckiser's Resolve All-Stains, Sun Products' Surf Liquid Laundry Detergent and GlaxoSmithKline's Tums Freshers were among the winners of Product of the Year USA's recently announced top products for 2013, the group said.

The named products were the result of a vote among 50,000 consumers.

NEW YORK — L'Oréal Paris is relaunching LorealParisUSA.com, which will include a first-to-market content production and syndication partnership with AOL, the company said Tuesday.

The company described the site as the first major one to be designed for all devices, making it easy to navigate for users on desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter net income jumped 32%, beating expectations, helped by strong U.S. sales and repairs and cleanup resulting from Superstorm Sandy. The chain also said it will buy back $17 billion of its common stock and boosted its quarterly dividend by 34%.

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. reported a greater-than-expected net loss of $63.3 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $11.9 million a year earlier.

Total sales edged down to $1.3 billion compared to $1.39 billion last year. Comparable-store sales fell 7%, hurt by a decline in the performance of its postpaid wireless business.
 

North Bergen, N.J. -- Vitamin Shoppe Inc. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter net income rose 3% to $9.7 million, up from $9.4 million in the year-ago period.
   

Cincinnati -- Macy's earned a better-than-expected $730 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $745 million a year earlier when it booked one-time gains from the sale of store leases. The department store retailer forecast an annual profit for the recently completed year that surpassed analysts’ estimates and provided new guidance for continued growth and progress for 2013.

Chicago -- The retail industry is poised for another year of heavy deal flow. Nearly all retail CFOs (94%) expect merger and acquisition will increase or remain steady in 2013, according to a new survey from BDO USA.

The bullish forecasts follow $324.6 billion in global retail and consumer M&A activity in 2012, which was up 33% over 2011 and the busiest year since 2007, according to Dealogic. A majority of CFOs (68%) expect the U.S. markets to see a majority of deal volume, followed by the Asia-Pacific market (20%) and Latin America market (7%).

Insight Beverages has named Sharon Porter as director of national sales effective Feb. 25, 2013. 

“As director of national sales, Sharon will lead our organization in its efforts to expand our core convenience store business, distribution and national accounts.  We are very excited to have a person of Sharon’s caliber at our company as we continue to expand our business in convenience stores and other foodservice channels,” said Bill Flack, VP sales for Insight Beverages.

BARCELONA — At Mobile World Congress, MasterCard introduced MasterPass, a digital service that allows consumers to use any payment card or enabled device to discover enhanced shopping experiences that are as simple as a click, tap or touch – online, in-store or anywhere.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — New Jersey first lady and chairwoman of the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund Mary Pat Christie will visit a Point Pleasant, N.J., Rite Aid store on Friday at 11:30 a.m. with Rite Aid executives to receive money for the fund, Rite Aid said Thursday.