News

Houston – The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc. has reached an agreement to repurchase $100 million worth of common stock from JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA under an accelerated share repurchase program. The retailer will buy the shares as part of an ongoing $200 million share repurchase program announced in March of this year. Men’s Wearhouse expects to close the transaction by the end of fourth quarter 2013.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Supervalu has appointed former OfficeMax executive Bruce Besanko as its EVP and CFO, effective August 7.

Besanko served as EVP of finance, CFO and chief administrative officer for OfficeMax, and is credited with strengthening the company’s balance sheet and transforming business-to-business and retail segments for one of the leading global office supply companies following his appointment in 2009.

By Greg Miller, CrossCom National

When an IT Manager at a retail company proposes to replace outdated technologies because of escalating maintenance costs, his Director may say, “Sorry, I need you to squeeze another year out of the system.”

But it’s not that easy.

The IT Manager doesn’t maintain an inventory of spare parts for the event of hardware failure. If a component needs replacement, he must buy a new one, or source from an aftermarket where prices are high and quality is suspect.

CHICAGO — Just two months after Groupon launched its free Breadcrumb iPad point-of-sale app, the company has announced major additions aimed to provide local businesses with a pre-built, customizable experience adapted to their specific industry. 

Breadcrumb POS how offers features for a broad range of merchants, including the ability to use pre-loaded menus and inventory lists, process offline transactions, scan and redeem Groupon vouchers, track deal performance and add custom item modifiers. 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As lawyers face off in the first battle over Detroit’s bankruptcy bid, Meijer is preparing to open its first store in the economically depressed city at the Gateway Marketplace shopping center.

Flooring specialist Lumber Liquidators reported a 14.9% second quarter same store sales increase and became the latest company to benefit from a resurgent housing and home improvement market.

Lumber Liquidators, operator of 300 stores, said total sales increased 22.2% to $257.1 million from $210.3 million during the second quarter ended June 30. Gross margins expanded to 41.3% from 37.3%, reflective of a reduced sourcing costs, higher prices and improved operational efficiencies, which translated to significant profit growth. Net income surged 67.7% to $20.4 million.

Toano, Va. – Lumber Liquidators reported impressive gains in net income and sales during the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Net income rose almost 68% to $20.4 million from $12.2 million in the second quarter of the previous year, while net sales grew 22% to $257.1 million from $210.3 million.

Same-store sales increased 14.9%, driven by a 9.1% increase in the number of customers invoiced and a 5.4% increase in the average sale.  

IRVING, Texas — Holiday shifts adversely affected quarter-to-date performance at Michaels Stores, which reported net sales of $631 million for the nine-week period ending July 6, a decrease of 0.1% from $631.8 million for the comparable period last fiscal year. 

Same-store sales for the same fiscal period declined 2.7%. The company's quarter-to-date performance was also adversely affected by the timing of media activity due to the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal 2012. However, as a result of the shifts, the company has seen improvement in July sales performance.