News

Stockholm, Sweden -- Hennes & Mauritz AB reported Wednesday that net income for its 2Q dropped 18% to $673 million, from $817 million in the year-ago period.

The Swedish fashion retailer blamed higher procurement costs and promotional offers for the lagging performance.

Sales edged up to $5.1 billion from $4.96 billion in the prior year quarter, but gross margin shrank to 61.7% from a previous 65.9%.

LOS ANGELES — Guess? Inc. has announced that Maurice Marciano, the company's co-founder and chairman of its board of directors, has notified the company of his decision to retire as an executive officer when his current employment agreement expires on Jan. 28, 2012, the end of the company's current fiscal year.  Marciano will continue to serve the company as non-rxecutive chairman of its board of directors.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway celebrated National Picnic Day on Monday by breaking the Guinness World Record for longest picnic table and debuting its new private-label brand.

The record-setting picnic, held at the Marina Green in San Francisco, featured Safeway's Open Nature, a newly launched line of all-natural foods that includes meat and poultry, bread, yogurt, ice cream and salad dressing products, that were prepared by Food Network chef Tyler Florence. Safeway also succeeded at building a table exceeding 305 ft.

SAN FRANCISCO — Williams-Sonoma that its board of directors has elected Rose Marie Bravo to the board.

STOCKHOLM — H&M announced that it is collaborating with Versace for its autumn 2011 designer collection. Designed by its creative director Donatella Versace, the exclusive collection will look back to the vibrant heritage of the brand, full of leather, print, colour and exuberance in exclusive materials at fantastic H&M prices, according to the company. The collection will include ranges for women, men and selected pieces for the home. It will be available from Nov. 17 in around 300 stores worldwide, as well as on-line.

NEW YORK — Borders' closings, and subsequent clearance sales, took a toll on Barnes & Noble's fourth-quarter results. B&N said that its 2.9% drop in same-store sales for the quarter were temporarily negatively impacted by the liquidation of over 200 Borders bookstores during that time. 

The trouble didn't end there for Barnes & Noble, which reported a fourth-quarter consolidated net loss of $59 million, or $1.04 per share. The company's total store sales were $943 million.

NEW YORK  — Samsung Electronics America has launched a first-of-its kind LCD refrigerator complete with apps for keeping track of recipes, schedules and more. 

The Samsung refrigerator includes the following apps:

• Recipes from Epicurious

• Organizational tools from Google Calendar

•  Notepad

• Entertainment from Pandora

• Photos from Picasa Web Albums

NEW YORK — Macy's announced that its "Macy's Chefs A-Go-Go" food truck tour will kick off in Miami on June 28. The first-ever tour will feature a chef from Macy's Culinary Council at each stop. MCC chefs include Cat Cora, Todd English and Marcus Samuelsson.

CINCINNATI — Kroger has released its fifth annual sustainability report.

 Some of the highlights noted in the report include:

• Kroger stores reduced overall energy consumption by 30% since 2000. 

• Company-wide, including all facilities, Kroger has saved more than 2.2 billion kilowatt hours.

NEW YORK — Private-label sales across all three major retail channels reached new highs in 2010, according the Private Label Manufacturers Association.