News

Gloucester, Mass. -- TradeStone Software announced that Family Dollar Stores has gone live with TradeStone's Collaborative Sourcing and Supplier Community Management solutions. The implementation was done in only 100 days.

“In my years at Family Dollar, I don't know of an application that's been up as fast as we got TradeStone up and running," said Scott Zucker, VP IT solutions, Family Dollar Stores, Matthews, N.C.

ORANGE, Calif. — Naturade on Wednesday announced the mass-market introduction of HealthSmart, a doctor-formulated daily protein shake mix that will serve as a comprehensive source of nutrition for active adults. 

Endorsed by baseball hall of famer George Brett, HealthSmart contains 18 g of whey, soy, pea and rice protein isolates, and is fortified with omega 3s and antioxidants for heart health, probiotics and fiber for healthy digestion, and 24 vitamins and minerals.

NEW YORK — The Private Label Manufacturers Association announced that Douglas Merrill will serve as the keynote speaker for the organization's 2011 Private Label Trade Show in November.

Merrill, who served as EVP engineering and chief information officer for Google from 2003 to 2008, will offer attendees perspective on how shoppers and shopping behaviors are changing, and what the coming retail marketplace will look like. The keynote speech will be presented at the annual PLMA Salute to Excellence Breakfast on Nov. 14.

MOSCOW — Gap Inc. announced that it has opened its first Banana Republic store in Russia through its franchise channel. The company also announced that it will open its first Gap store in Serbia on Friday. This store will represent the company’s 200th franchise store globally.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gap Inc.'s online boutiqe Piperlime announced that Rachel Bilson, Olivia Palermo and Byrdie Bell will join Rachel Zoe as guest editors to kick off the fall season.

“The idea of hosting guest editors on Piperlime.com has been integral to who we are since the day we launched in 2006,” said Jennifer Gosselin, VP and general manager of Piperlime.  “We started with Rachel Zoe and her popularity and reach has grown since then,” Gosselin continued.

San Diego -- PriceSmart's same-store sales rose 17.7% in August. Total revenue for the five weeks ended Sept. 4 climbed 21.5% to $148.3 million.

PriceSmart also announced that on August 19, 2011 opened its first warehouse club in Colombia. This warehouse club, located in Barranquilla, brings to 29 the total number of warehouse clubs in operation by the company.

PriceSmart, based in San Diego, had 29 warehouse clubs at August's end. The company runs membership warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean.

DALLAS — Kimberly-Clark, maker of the limited-edition jeans diaper, has introduced camouflage diapers to its Little Movers line, available exclusively at Walmart. 

NAPERVILLE, Ill. and BOCA RATON, Fla. — OfficeMax and Office Depot had very different things to say about their respective back-to-school sales performances during presentations at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference.

OfficeMax has been experiencing slower sales as consumers continue to be price conscious. In addition, Ravi Saligram, president and CEO of OfficeMax, reported that back-to-school sales are soft and the company is experiencing weaker technology sales.