News

WATSONVILLE, Calif. — EVP and president of Nordstrom Direct Jamie Nordstrom has joined West Marine's board of directors. Nordstrom also was appointed as the fourth member of West Marine's governance and compensation committee.

His board and committee service is expected to begin on the first meeting scheduled in 2013, most likely in March, and Nordstrom, like all the other directors, will stand for re-election to the board at West Marine's 2013 annual meeting of stockholders.

GARNER, N.C. — Butterball has moved to diversify its product portfolio with the acquisition of family-owned and operated Gusto Packing Co., located in Montgomery, Ill.

Gusto Packing Co. offers six basic product lines: Hickory & Apple Wood Smoked Bacon, Bone-In Smoked Pork & Turkey Products, Smoked Boneless Hams, Cooked Hams, Pork & Turkey Deli Meats and Spiral Sliced Hams.

New York -- Starbucks Coffee Co. is one of seven bidders for Tully's Coffee, according to The Seattle Times. The bids were filed on Thursday as part of an auction process for Tully's, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October.

The report said that Starbucks’ offer is for about half of the Tully’s stores. Tully's currently has 47 company-operated stores.
 

WASHINGTON -- The National Retail Federation on Wednesday welcomed an agreement reached between the White House and Congress on a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. The agreement was approved by the Senate early this morning and could be considered by the House as soon as today.


SEATTLE -- Starbucks Coffee Company announced that it has completed its acquisition of Teavana Holdings has formally closed, making Teavana a wholly-owned subsidiary of Starbucks. Teavana has some 300 locations, primarily in 300 shopping malls across the nation.  

The acquisition is the the latest addition to Starbucks emerging brands portfolio, which also includes Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tazo.

WASHINGTON — LG Electronics USA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan to collaborate on a number of environmental stewardship programs.

NEW YORK & LONDON — Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, has teamed up with Pearson, a leading global learning company, to accelerate customer access to digital content.

Beyonce and Pepsi are reaching out to football fans to participate in a unique crowdsourcing initiative for this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Super Bowl XLVII is scheduled for February 3 in New Orleans and Beyonce is the featured entertainer for the Pepsi sponsored half time show. What’s different about this year’s event is the beverage brand and entertainer have issued an open call for fans to submit a poses that will be used in an opening video that welcomes Beyonce to the stage.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — It’s not the latest iPhone or the newest Tablet, but Staples is touting a breakthrough in binder design for the New Year.

The Staples Better Binder boasts removable FileRings which the company contends make it the first such product to offer a feature that allows users to detach the rings from the shell for easy filing.

The retail industry has temporarily avoided a shut down of 14 ports along the East and Gulf coasts following a 30 day extension of contract negotiations with organized labor.

The extension solves nothing, but it does give port operators and representatives of the U.S. Maritime Alliance and International Longshoremen’s Association time to iron out a new collective bargaining agreement that was set to expire on December 29. Retail industry trade groups welcomed news of the extension, while pushing for a longer term solution.