OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Seattle – Starbucks Corp. plans to move its European headquarters to London, from its current base in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The move will both concentrate some executives in the U.K., including some transferred from the Amsterdam office, and also increase the tax Starbucks pays in the U.K.

Starbucks paid an estimated $16.8 million in U.K. taxes during 2013 and has said it expects to pay the same amount in 2014. The company has received criticism in the U.K. for allegedly using complex accounting procedures to minimize the tax it pays there.

Cincinnati -- The Kroger Co. announced that Timothy Massa will be promoted to group VP human resources and labor relations.

Massa, 47, currently serves as VP of corporate human resources, talent development. In this expanded role, he will take responsibility for labor relations when Paul Heldman, executive VP, secretary and general counsel, retires in May.

New York – PriceGrabber and StellaService are launching a partnership where PriceGrabber will display StellaService's online retailer ratings and customer service performance data on PriceGrabber.com. In addition, PriceGrabber will act as a distribution partner for StellaService to its network of digital publishers.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- ChannelAdvisor Digital Marketing now offers support for Google Merchant Promotions so retailers can advertise special offers within Google product listing ads, and ChannelAdvisor’s new Portfolio Bidder predicts optimal bids to help maximize revenue for online retailers and manufacturers.  

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. highlighted its use of technology and innovation to bridge the growing digital world with its physical stores at the company’s annual meeting with investors. In new initiatives, the retailer is expanding its reserve in-store service to all U.S. Gap stores by the end of the second quarter, enabling online and mobile shoppers to now reserve items at more than 1,000 Gap and Banana Republic store locations.

New York - Retailers are preparing for a strong Easter shopping season, with shipments of “Easter” related items up more than 22% from 2013. According to analysis of shipments from December to February (the time when retailers stock their shelves for Easter) from global trade data provider Panjiva shows that U.S. retailers recorded a total of 4,610 Easter-related shipments during this period in 2013-2014, compared to 3,772 in 2012-13.

Washington, D.C. - The National Retail Federation told a congressional panel on April 16 that the retail industry is committed to safeguarding and protecting consumer data and information from cybercriminals and hackers. Tom Litchford, NRF VP for retail technologies, testified before a field hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies, where he outlined specific steps that the nation’s retailers are pursuing and implementing to identify, prevent and combat cyber attacks.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Several Sears Outlet stores across the country have new owners. Locations in Oceanside, Ontario, and Corona, Calif., are now owned by Tony Lutfi. Lutfi and his team now own and operate 11 Sears Outlet stores, 17 Sears Home Appliance Showrooms and three Sears Appliance & Hardware Stores.

In addition, Sears Outlet stores Tempe and Gilbert, Ariz. have a new owner, Keith Edquist. Edquist also owns another Sears Outlet store and seven Sears Home Appliance Showrooms.