News

Woonsocket, R.I. - CVS Health has completed the purchase of Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacy, the largest Hispanic-owned drugstore chain in the U.S. The acquisition includes Navarro's 33 retail drugstore locations and Navarro Health Services, a specialty pharmacy serving patients with complex or chronic diseases.

The retail drugstores will retain the Navarro Discount Pharmacy name.

Toronto - Staples Canada is expanding its Bullfrog Power partnership to support renewable energy in four additional stores. Through the partnership, Bullfrog Power injects clean, renewable electricity onto the grid to match the amount of energy the Staples facilities use.

Eden Prairie, Minn. - ShopHQ, a multichannel electronic retailer, has selected Manhattan’s Warehouse Management System (WMS) to help the company increase throughput and capacity of its distribution and fulfillment operations. The software deployment is part of an expansion of the company’s Bowling Green, Kentucky-based distribution center, which will more than double in size from 260,000 sq. ft. to 600,000 sq. ft. by the end of 2015.

Las Vegas - Cricket Wireless and GameStop Corp. are launching a new strategic retail relationship that will offer Cricket Wireless' no-annual contract service in more than 2,800 GameStop U.S. store locations. Starting in October after a successful trial in select markets, GameStop will begin selling Cricket Wireless no-annual contract service and smartphone devices and accessories.  

New York – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that media reports indicate could be worth as much as $24.3 billion, making it the biggest U.S. initial public offering ever.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba is seeking a valuation as high as $162.7 million, in the upper end of the proposed price range and higher than that of any other public Internet company in the U.S. except Google and Facebook.

Saks Fifth Avenue is launching a new user-generated content hub on its e-commerce site. Called #SaksStyle and based on the Curalate Fanreel image integration platform, #SaksStyle allows customers to display photos from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr in a social shopping environment.

Here are three reasons to like (and very possibly emulate) what Saks is doing with its latest social venture.

Welch's has appointed Mari Rodriguez as the VP of R&D/corporate quality. Most recently, Rodriguez was the senior director of beverage R&D with Campbell’s, where she developed and helped launch numerous V-8 products.

“Welch’s is the leader in Concord grape research and product development,” said Rodriguez. “I’m thrilled to be joining their team of grape experts to help further expand the brand’s portfolio of delicious products and bring the benefits of the Concord grape to more families.”

Walgreens has appointed Barry Rosenstein, managing partner JANA Partners, and a second new director to be named to its board of directors as the company continues moving forward to complete its merger with Alliance Boots.
 

As more retailers cope with data breaches, Virtual Piggy, provider of family and teen payment technology Oink, has added Jordan Harris to its team as risk officer.

Harris will be responsible for ensuring that all areas of the Oink offering are protected against payment fraud and ensure that the solution meets applicable laws and regulations. His focus will include working with management to identify and implement enhancements related to the management and monitoring of risk and fraud related functions.

Electrolux has entered into an agreement to acquire the appliances business of General Electric, one of the leading manufacturers of kitchen and laundry products in the United States, for a cash consideration of $3.3 billion.