News

New York – Investment firm Starboard Value, a shareholder in Office Depot, is foregoing a preliminary consent solicitation it filed against Office Depot in April in light of an order by the Delaware Chauncery Court for Office Depot to hold its annual meeting. Starboard Value had been pressing Office Depot to hold its annual meeting and commenced a consent solicitation to remove several existing directors in favor of Starboard's nominees.

St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio, are ground zero for a new initiative from News America Marketing that blends e-commerce with the traditional free-standing insert.

DALLAS — 7-Eleven is looking to leverage social media this summer with a limited duration offer designed to generate traffic at the retailer’s more than 10,000 worldwide locations.

The announcement comes on the heels of Dunkin’ Donuts’ decision to focus more on its beverages and Starbucks’ announcement that it would be raising prices on select beverages. 

Austin, Texas – Digital coupon provider RetailMeNot is expanding into Canada with the launch of its new RetailMeNot.ca site. The site provides Canadian consumers with access to thousands of digital coupons for more than 6,000 retailers doing business in Canada.

MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills saw growth for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year ended May 26, thanks to new product offerings as well as established product lines.

The company reported net sales of $17.8 billion for fiscal 2013, an increase of 7% from 16.7 billion in fiscal 2012. 

ZEELAND, Mich. — Office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller posted strong fourth quarter results and offered an indication that demand may finally pick up for other segments of the office products world. 

The company reported net sales for the quarter ended June 1 of $460 million, an increase of 9.3% from $420.7 the same quarter last fiscal year. For the full fiscal year, net sales were $1.8 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 2.9% from $1.7 billion. 

Improvements in the housing market that have lifted the fortunes of Home Depot and Lowe’s so far this year extended to leading home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, which reported solid sales growth late Wednesday.

The company produced earnings per share of 93 cents that met analysts’ consensus estimate and fell with the guidance range of 88 cents to 94 cents, on sales that grew 17.8% to slightly more than $2.6 billion. Same store sales rose 3.4% during the first quarter ended June 1, on top of a prior year comp increase of 3%.

Kroger is committing to moving its stores toward the EPA zero waste threshold of 90%, according to its seventh annual sustainability report.

Currently Kroger diverts 58% of its waste from stores and will increase that figure to 65% by the end of this year and 70% by the end of 2015. The retailer also is committing to sourcing 100% certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2015.