News

The $575 million acquisition of Maidenform Brands by HanesBrands would create a mass market intimate apparel powerhouse, but not everyone is happy with a sales price that is seen as undervaluing the takeover target.

St. Louis — Build-A-Bear Workshop narrowed its second-quarter loss to $6.2 million from $7.5 million in the year-ago period, boosted by improved sales and store productivity.

Total revenues were $81.9 million , up 1.9% from the $80.4 million reported in the second quarter of 2012.  Same-store sales rose 7.3%, including an 8.6% increase in North America and 1.7% increase in Europe. E-commerce sales rose 5.2%.

Seattle — Amazon.com increased net sales an impressive 22% during the second quarter of fiscal 2013. But the Internet retailing giant reported a net loss of $7 million due to operating expenses and investments in warehouses, digital content and other areas, compared with net income of $7 million in the year-ago period.

No one would dispute that Lakeland, Fla.-based supermarket is a wonderful operator, but a piece in the August 12 issue of Forbes takes things a little too far and characterizes the regional operator of 1,073 stores as, “the Wal-Mart Slayer.”
 

Chicago — Pure-play e-tailers are doing a better job in satisfying their customers overall than omnichannel retailers, but omnichannel retailers have an edge in select functional areas like checkout. According to results of the mid-year Customer Feedback Index (CFI) from OpinionLab, e-tailers had an average CFI score of 481, compared with a CFI average of 457 for omnichannel retailers.

Whatever a cloud-based Web site acceleration company is, Walmart acquired one this week called Torbit.

The retailer’s Silicon Valley innovation engine known as @Walmart Labs described Torbit as “a front-end optimization innovator that has been focused on making the web a faster and better place.”

Torbit is known for developing measurement, analytics and performance improvement tools to help companies identify and enhance their overall site performance.

ATLANTA — PepsiCo and Feed the Children have teamed up with Compassion Atlanta and Walmart to distribute two tractor trailers full of food and essentials to 800 Atlanta-area children and families in need.  

NEW YORK — Nickelodeon has promoted Pamela Kaufman to the expanded role of CMO and president of the company’s consumer products. She will report to Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Group.  

In her new role, Kaufman will oversee Nickelodeon's domestic consumer products business, encompassing merchandising and licensing for properties which include SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dora the Explorer.