News

MERRIMACK, N.H. — Brookstone, a multichannel specialty retailer, has appointed J.W. Childs executive William E. Watts as its new executive chairman of board.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holding Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $279 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to net income of $189 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. 

The retailer also said that it is considering selling its protection-agreement business in an ongoing effort to raise cash as it struggles to improve its profits.

New Albany, Ohio -- Abercrombie & Fitch shrunk its net loss during the first quarter of 2013 but still reported thin financial results. Net loss for the quarter was $7.2 million, compared to $21.3 million during the first quarter of 2012. The results missed analysts’ estimates.

Net sales dropped 9% from $921.2 million to $838.8 million. Same-store sales plummeted 17%. Direct-to-consumer sales fell 6%. U.S. same-store sales fell 14%; international comparable sales were down 16%.

Norwalk, Conn. -- GE Capital announced it is administrative agent on a $550 million senior secured credit facility for Lord & Taylor, a leading North American retailer. The proceeds will be used to refinance debt, support ongoing working capital needs and for other corporate purposes.  

GE Capital also provided the company with interest rate risk management products and services.  GE Capital Markets served as joint lead arranger and book runner.
 

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Dole Food Company’s board of directors has approved a proposal to update the company’s owned vessel fleet, with the acquisition of three new specialty built refrigerated container ships for its U.S. West Coast operations, costing approximately $165 million, for a phased delivery between 2015 and 2016.

BATTLE CREEK — Kellogg is committing more than 640,000 servings of food to support disaster relief efforts following the devastating tornado in Moore, Okla.

The company has already dispatched four semi-trailers of Kellogg's cereals and Keebler snacks to Moore, with more planned. Feeding America is working with food banks in its network, and other relief agencies, to provide the food to families and individuals impacted by the tornado, as well as relief workers assisting the community.

As of this writing, the first of hundreds of new gTLDs — the suffixes to the right of the dot in domain names — have begun to be approved for release on the Internet. In an international move that hasn’t been widely publicized in the U.S., ICANN has been sifting through some 2,000 applications for new domain name suffixes, alternatives to the dozen or so we’ve all become familiar with, such as .com, .net and .gov.