News

Foot Locker is debuting a new retail brand, The Locker Room, in the United Kingdom. The format was unveiled at the end of 2011, in Brent Cross Shopping Centre, North London. Two additional stores opened in spring 2012, in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping center, and in London’s Lakeside center.

Regional sporting goods chain Hibbett Sports plans to begin construction this fall on a new distribution facility that will support more than 2,000 stores.

URBANDALE, Iowa — Hy-Vee is opening a new store in Iowa that will include a casual dining spot called Market Fresh Grille that will become a full-service restaurant at 4 p.m., including trained servers and a menu that includes dishes created by the store's chefs and a selection of wines and craft beers.

In order to make way for the store, the company is closing its current store in central Iowa in order to make way for a parking lot for the new store, set to open Aug. 14. The new store will include

TOWACO, N.J. — Bosco brand chocolate syrup is making its Walmart debut in 530 stoes in 12 Eastern states including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Bosco which comes in a 22 ounce squeeze bottle is all-natural and vitamin-fortified. Walmart will sell Bosco for $1.98.     

SKOKIE, Ill. — Topco Associates announced that Andrew Broccolo has joined the company as general counsel. In this new position Broccolo, 46, will report directly to Topco president and CEO Randy Skoda.

“I’m thrilled that Andy is now part of our leadership team,” Skoda said. “Andy will be instrumental in helping Topco effectively manage risk while also providing sound legal advice that assists us in driving our day-to-day business of delivering value to the association’s 52 members.”

By Renato Scaff, [email protected] and Mark Allen, [email protected]

While the proliferation of new products, personalized services, and digital channels are giving consumers more shopping options than ever, they also are making it tough for traditional retailers and consumer goods manufacturers to capitalize on the demand being created. Succeeding in this environment will require a new level of seamless retail-supplier collaboration.

NORTHBROOK, Ill. — Hilco Trading has named Gary Epstein as chief marketing officer for the company. Epstein will be responsible for Hilco’s overall marketing strategy and execution, branding, market research, etc. across all of the operating companies. Epstein will be taking over the role from Rick Kaye, who has held the position for more than 10 years and will remain with the organization as an EVP until January 2013.

To help manage its rapidly growing e-commerce business, Walmart’s Asda division in the United Kingdom has selected multiple components of Manhattan Associates supply chain solutions portfolio known as SCOPE.

Asda Direct, the retailer’s general merchandise ecommerce operation, will deploy the supply chain solutions within several distribution centers across the United Kingdom and leverage the Manhattan Associates Supply Chain Process Platform.