News

Framingham, Mass. — Staples Inc. has received clearance from the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China for its proposed $6.3 billion acquisition of Office Depot. Staples continues to seek clearance from regulatory agencies in the U.S., the European Union, Canada, and Australia.

The Commerce Commission of New Zealand gave its clearance for the transaction last week.

London, U.K. — Gordon Brothers Europe (GBE), a firm specializing in restructurings for the retail, commercial and industrial sectors, has named Heinz Weber as president, overseeing the European subsidiary of Gordon Brothers Group. Weber has more 10 years of leadership experience with GBE, including managing director, head of D-A-CH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), in a 20-plus-year career.

The TPN division of global marketing and corporate communications giant Omnicon has worked with Walmart and its supplier community for more than 10 years and now that it has a physical presence in Northwest Arkansas the retail marketing agency is ready for some serious growth.

TPN, which stand for The Promotion Network, is part of Omnicon’s Diversified Agency Services division. TPN recently open an office in Bentonville and tapped John Meyer to lead the organization which is part of TPN’s 300 person organization with nine offices nationwide.

Walmart’s saturation of Northwest Arkansas with its Neighborhood Market format continued this week with the opening of a new location on north Walton Boulevard just a few miles from the retailer’s headquarters.

Liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Bloomberg financial columnist Barry Ritholz weighed in this week with points of view on Walmart’s recent investment in wages and other changes to improve worker satisfaction.

Both took shots at the company by revisiting some of the negative characterizations of how Walmart treats workers that have been repeated so often they have taken on a life of their own.

Krugman offer a more technical view on the company’s actions while Ritholz took more of a snarky approach.

Walmart Stores, Inc., president and CEO Doug McMillon invoked a baking metaphor at a retail conference in Northwest Arkansas this week to describe the company’s merchandising philosophy and approach to offering customers every day low prices.

Yahoo has named the former marketing chief at JCPenney as its new senior vice president consumer marketing.

Debra Berman will be joining Yahoo as our new Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing, reporting to me. Berman will join the Yahoo marketing team on July 6, bringing with her more than two decades of marketing experience.

Shoe Carnival is planning to open smaller stores to leverage untapped markets in smaller communities, as well as the company's omnichannel capabilities.

Kmart has overhauled its marketing team by making several personnel changes and replacing its CMO with a veteran from DSW.

According to Ad Age, the company has named Kelly Cook as its new chief marketing officer after Mark Andeer left the company.

Cook will be leading the company's "omnichannel transformation," according to Ad Age.

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The CEO of 99 Cents Only Stores Inc. says he's confident that the company's core business strategy remains strong despite a sharp drop in net income in the first quarter.