OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

CST Brands is not a household name in the retail industry, but it is fast becoming one. The company has ambitious plans to grow through new store construction and acquisitions and just made several key executive moves to help make things happen.

Dollar Tree says Family Dollar CEO Howard R. Levine is stepping down as an officer of the company following the integration of Family Dollar.

The company had previously announced that Levine would remain with the company for a period of time to assist with the integration, reporting to, and supporting, Dollar Tree’s CEO, Bob Sasser. Gary Philbin, who was named Family Dollar’s president and COO in July, will continue leading Family Dollar and will continue reporting to Sasser.

Sally Beauty Holdings is turning to a 25-year retail veteran to help the company boost sales and drive growth.

Sharon M. Leite has been appointed president of the Sally Beauty Supply LLC, U.S. and Canada business, effective Feb. 1.

SPS Commerce Inc., a provider of cloud-based retail supply chain management solutions, is recognizing the need for back-end unification of supply chain and store.

SPS has acquired ToolBox Solutions, a Toronto-based provider of POS analytics and category management services to retailers and CPG suppliers in North America.

Staples is continuing to build on its assortment of small business services with an expanded technology assistance offering.

Staples Tech Services now offers a next day guarantee. The suite of offerings includes PC services. Select Staples stores also offer small businesses mobile phone and tablet repairs. The new guarantee from Staples Tech Services includes PC set-up, data transfer, software upgrades, virus removal and more.

With the retail industry continuing to face abundant legislative challenges, the Retail Industry Leaders Association has made two key hires to bolster lobbying efforts during what promises to be a year of highly contentious presidential politics.

Retailers seeking to make the holiday return process as pleasant as possible need to offer a few specific features.

According to a new post-holiday study of 500 adult U.S. consumers from location-based mobile platform provider Retale, 24% of those surveyed stated that they are likely to return or exchange at least one of the presents that they received this holiday season.