News

The Canadian retail landscape shifted again late Wednesday when Safeway announced the sale of its operations there to Sobeys Inc. for $5.8 billion.

The all cash deal will result in net proceeds to Safeway of about $2 billion which will be used to pay down debt. Sobey’s is a Canadian food retailer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited. It is acquiring Safeway’s 223 store operation and 12 manufacturing facilities that last year generated sales of $6.7 billion in Canadian dollars and a $428 million operating profit.

DALLAS — Huggies has tapped former Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera as its latest brand ambassador. Rivera will be promoting Huggies' new diapers and wipes.

"This past year has been filled with some amazing moments, like the birth of my son, Sebastian," Rivera said. "Parenting has been full of surprises — the good, the bad and the messy. That's why I rely on Huggies diapers and wipes to help us pass any test and keep Sebastian clean and dry."

Chicago -- Omnichannel specialty apparel retailer Threadless takes an active approach to Twitter marketing that has resulted in significant lifts in site traffic and customer engagement. At the recent Internet Retailer conference in Chicago, representatives from Threadless and Twitter discussed how retailers can get more from their Twitter campaigns.

“Every tweet was a call to action,” said Threadless Marketing Director Todd Lido. “We were seeing growth but it felt like the strategy was getting stale.”

PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo has chosen three schools as the grand prize winners of the 2012-13 PepsiCo Dream Machine Recycle Rally, a national recycling program and contest designed to encourage students to recycle every day.  

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ray Cook Golf, a leading golf manufacturer, has appointed John Holst as director of sales. In this role, Holst will oversee sales strategy and partner programs while building the Ray Cook brand.

He will also be charged with building the company's other brands, including Solus Golf, under parent company TGIB Marketing Inc.

Sycamore Partners has acquired mall- and Web-based specialty retailer Hot Topic and its Hot Topic, Torrid and Blackheart concepts for approximately $600 million.

"Hot Topic and Torrid are both leaders in their categories, and we are excited to have both brands as part of our portfolio," said Stefan Kaluzny, managing director of Sycamore Partners. "Sycamore Partners is very pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Lisa Harper and her team to invest in the continued development of both the Hot Topic and Torrid retail brands."

The Target board of directors demonstrated its faith in the company’s cash generating capabilities on Wednesday and agreed to up the company’s quarterly dividend 19% to 43 cents a share.
 
The hefty increase ups the annual payout to $1.72 and moves the company closer to a long-term commitment to increase the full-year dividend amount to $3 by 2017. In addition, the company has established a target of growing earnings per share to $8 over the same time frame, up from $4.26 last year.