News

MINNEAPOLIS — Supervalu announced that it has named Leon Bergmann as president of its independent business organization, reporting to Craig Herkert, CEO and president. He replaces Mark Anderson, who will be retiring from Supervalu later this summer.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Books-A-Million announced the company has submitted a bid in the Borders Inc. bankruptcy proceedings to purchase, among other things, the inventory, fixtures, equipment, and leasehold interests for 30 Borders locations. Under the proposed bid, Books-A-Million will assume the leases for these locations and continue to operate these stores.

Borders Group on Thursday won court approval to liquidate its remaining 399 stores.

Walmart is among a group of retailers who further aligned themselves with a key Obama administration initiative this week by committing to open more than 1,500 stores in urban and rural markets defined as food deserts. The initiative is part of the Obama administration’s Let’s Move! campaign designed to address the nation’s weight problem by improving access to fresh foods.

Here are the facts:

• Walmart will open between 275 and 300 stores in food deserts by 2016.

It is logical that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. president and CEO Mike Duke would top Supermarket News’ Power 50 list of the food industry’s most influential executives. The company sells more food, by a large margin, than anyone else, therefore a case could be made that Duke, or whoever is CEO of Walmart, should top the publication’s list each year.

The ministers of economic development, trade and industry and agriculture, forestry and fisheries in South Africa are protesting the nation’s Competition Tribunal’s approval of a merger agreement between Walmart and Massmart. The three government entities are seeking to set aside a ruling that allowed Walmart to acquire a 51% ownership stake in Massmart last month on the grounds that the tribunal acted irregularly with regard to matters of documents presented during the discovery process and the scheduling of decisions.

PLANO, Texas — JCPenney announced that it is launching a new philanthropic initiative that invites customers in over 1,100 stores to turn small change into “pennies from heaven” by rounding up their purchases and donating the difference to afterschool programs. Serving as the company’s signature cause-related event, pennies from heaven will be held four times a year starting July 31 through Aug. 27 during the Back-to-School season.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Coinstar announced that Mitch Lowe has resigned as president of the company's DVD rental kiosk business, redbox.  Lowe has resigned to pursue entrepreneurial and other interests, and will continue to serve as president until a successor is named. Coinstar has commenced an external search to identify a new president of redbox.  

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy is adding a dozen dishes to its gourmet line.

The line of restaurant-quality products, launched in February, now will include 12 new items, including pizza, Hawaiian pork and more, in addition to "Gourmet for Two" meals, which provide customers with a restaurant-quality meal for two for under $10.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax announced that it will offer customers support education by carrying an extensive selection of Boise brand paper products with the Box Tops for Education seal on the package. OfficeMax retail stores and OfficeMax retail partners are currently the only office super stores to carry Boise's Box Tops for Education products, the company reported.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc. announced that Bella Goren, CFO AMR Corp. and American Airlines Inc., has been appointed to the company’s board of directors, effective Aug. 15. She will become the 11th member of the board and will serve on the company’s audit and finance committee.