News

New York -- Foot Locker has received approval from the Federal Cartel Office in Germany to complete its acquisition of Runners Point Warenhandelsgesellschaft mbH (RPG), initially announced in May 2013. RPG is majority owned by private equity group Hannover Finanz and operates more than 200 specialty athletic retail stores in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland under various banners, as well as an e-commerce site.

The transaction, valued at roughly $94 million, is expected to close early next month.

NEW YORK — Bowing to pressure from the Partnership at Drugfree.org, fashion retailer Urban Outfitters has agreed to pull merchandise made to look like prescription pill bottles, including prescription label flasks and pint and shot glasses, from its shelves.  

New York -- Despite continuing economic uncertainty, new data from KPMG indicates retailers are ready to invest capital to spur growth this year. The 2013 KPMG Retail Outlook Survey shows that 85% of retail executives expect capital spending will increase or remain the same during the next year. When asked where they will increase spending most, executives most frequently cited geographic expansion (61%), IT (40% and advertising and marketing/branding (24%).

Hasbro will be developing toys and physical games based on the globally popular Angry Birds brand as part of its expanded licensing agreement with Rovio Entertainment. 

Hasbro will develop the upcoming game Angry Birds Go!, scheduled to release this year, and will continue to develop and expand the collaboration with Angry Birds Star Wars from Rovio Entertainment and LucasFilm.

NEW YORK — As part of its American Icons campaign, Macy’s will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the drive-in theater by providing customers with a free showing of “The Smurfs” in pop-up drive-ins at select Macy’s stores and existing drive-in theaters nationwide.

WAYNE, N.J. — Lingering cold weather and soft sales in its electronics and entertainment categories caused Toys”R”Us’ net and comparable store sales for first quarter ended May 4 to dip. 

The company reported net sales of $2.4 billion, a decrease of nearly 8% from $2.6 billion for the quarter a year ago. The decline in net sales for the quarter was primarily attributable to a decrease in comparable store net sales, as well as a foreign currency translation impact of $67 million. 

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s plans to open a new customer service operations center in Dallas in late spring 2014. The two-building, three-story, 240,000-sq.-ft. facility will support the company’s growing Kohl’s Charge program as well as Kohls.com.

The company's e-commerce site reached $1.4 billion in sales last year following three consecutive years of more than 40% annual growth.

ABILENE, Kan. — Lingering winter weather conditions affected broad-line retailer Alco, which reported same-store sales of $112.4 million for the first quarter ended May 5, a 2.2% decrease from $115 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The company reported net sales from continuing operations for the quarter of $117.5 million, an increase of 0.9% from $116.5 million for the same quarter a year ago.